Prince Lance Gleam was a very strong, trustworthy Pegasus pony with a thirst for adventure and a love for danger. He was known as an adrenaline addict and his hobbies often got him into trouble, which often meant being bailed out by one of his friends. His fearlessness and adventurousness stemmed from his dream of joining the Royal Guard, which he had wanted to do since he was a young colt. He had taken on many training sessions with his uncle Shining Armour and had learned all about the tasks given to guards and the requirements.
One particular day, the stallion felt the tugging urge to explore the Everfree Forest, much to the dissatisfaction of his friends. When looking for a travel companion, he had very little luck. All of his friends knew of the dangers in the Everfree and were reluctant to experience them first-hoof. Eventually, he managed to gather his friends together in order to convince them to accompany him, however, they had no intention of doing so.
Bright-Eyes, a huge, buttermilk-coloured farm stallion ran one of his heavy hooves along the ground shyly. Despite being the biggest and physically strongest of his friends, he was extremely shy and quiet, much like his mother, who preferred the company of animals as opposed to ponies. He spoke gently to his head-strong friend. He lowered his head, causing some of his reddish hair to fall into his eyes and his small ponytail to loosen.
“Lance, do you know… How dangerous the Everfree Forest is? Even mom is unable to talk to its inhabitants.”
The lilac prince shook his wing feathers in frustration. He was irritated by their lack of interest, despite the fact that they had done way more dangerous things in the past, including battling a full-grown dragon and challenging a distant Changeling prince. He hung his head. The next pony to speak was the loudest, most excitable pony of the bunch, Floss Pie, a giddy, immature, lavender mare with a vibrant pink, curly mane. She placed a hoof on Lance’s shoulder. Despite her excitability, she was serious when she had to be.
“Bright’s right, Lance. We don’t want you to get hurt.”
She paused in thought, but was hastily interrupted by Diamond Stitch, a refined, light grey mare with a long, wavy blue mane of different shades. The mare stood with her head held high, almost too regal for a Ponyville citizen. She cocked her head and spoke elegantly, almost like a Princess. A characteristic gained from both her Fashionista mother and Fancy Pants of a father.
“Darling, please… We care about you and understand that you’re trying to prove yourself, but we don’t want to get into trouble either.”
The turquoise stallion stood beside her shook his blue and yellow-streaked mane out of his green eyes. He stepped forward. His father being a Wonderbolt captain and mother being the former Element of Honesty meant that he was very well respected and was very caring, so he chose his words carefully when responding to Lance’s idea. Being his best friend, he knew that being to brash or completely going against his idea would be seen as a form of betrayal by Lance.
“Lance, ah know you just wanna go for an adventure, but the Everfree is much too dangerous for us, we’re still young, ya know?”
Still determined to sway the six of his friends, he stood tall and tried to think of a way to persuade them. Princess Harmonia, daughter of Prince Discord of Chaos and Princess Celestia of the Sun stood forward, changing from her disguised form of a grey Pegasus with pink-tipped wings and a black mane and tail, to a more dragon-like creature, resembling her father.
“Please, Lance. It is much too dangerous for any of us at this early stage in our lives. Your goal is important and this may be a way to prove your strength, but is it worth potentially losing your friends?”
Lance’s head drooped in defeat. He sighed deeply, internally deciding whether to go alone or not at all. His ear twitched as he heard a crackle above his head and had to duck out of the way as a young mare named Spectrum Streak dashed from her thundercloud and onto the Earth beneath her.
“I for one am totally up for it!”
Clearly giddy about her friend’s idea, the dark grey mare shook her blue and pastel-rainbow mane. Like her mother, she had multi-coloured streaks in her mane and tail which, accompanying the dark coat colour from her father, made her instantly recognisable as a trainee Wonderbolt and the daughter of two of the major members of the group; Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane. Lance stared at her, wide eyed and smiling. The others all stared silently at her. Floss was the first to speak, sounding unusually wary.
“Spec, you know yourself what it’s like in there. Don’t you remember when you crash landed there?”
The words of worry were shook off quickly by the spectral mare. She flew up in the air and reclined on her thunder cloud. She was silent for a while, hitting the cloud with her hoof, causing small sparks of electricity to bounce around the cloud while she thought. Eventually, Spectrum Streak flew back down to the ground, chest puffed out and head held high.
“I know you’re scared guys, but we’re a big group. Our parents managed to get through these woods without any of their abilities and managed to get out safely; why can’t we? We’re the elements of harmony. Heck, Harmonia is the Princess of harmony. We can do it, guys.”
Spectrum streak continued her motivational speech, eventually winning over her friends. She had learned from the best, her parents being Wonderbolts captains and having to motivate fellow teammates on a daily basis. As such, Spectrum had learned a lot and often used this skill to her advantage. She turned to Lance, who was now grinning broadly at her. Once the group had gone to collect things for their adventure, Spectrum trotted over to Lance, planting a soft peck on his cheek, which soon burned up, turning a light pink.
“Thanks Spec. I owe you one…”
Spectrum giggled at the bashful Pegasus and hopped back onto her cloud. She lowered it to match his height.
“Alrighty then, Romeo. How about a date?”
She giggled teasingly as his face turned scarlet.
“Just kidding. See you later, Lance.”
Lance was silent as Spectrum Streak took off, her signature streak of rainbow behind her. He stared after her until she was completely out of sight, before shaking off his embarrassment and heading to the library to collect his things.
The large group of excitable ponies were standing at the entrance to the forest, the only pony not feeling the enthusiasm being Bright-Eyes, however this was dismissed as normal behaviour. While at first invigorated and trotting quickly into the forest, the ponies soon slowed to a halt as they realised that they were in fact lost. Every crack of a twig or dripping of water from the river sent shivers down the ponies’ spines. They all turned on Lance. Diamond Stitch was the first to express her displeasure.
“Lance, my coat is filthy! What in the name of Celestia were you thinking?!”
This comment irritated Harmonia, who was extremely protective of her mother’s name and disliked anyone using it in vain, as her friends knew. She stood tall, glaring at the snobbish pony next to her.
“Diamond Stitch, do not take my mother’s name in vain. You have no right to do so.”
The two bickered, turning on Bright-Eyes when he tried to stop them. He stood silent, quaking in fear as they yelled at him. The yelling became more intense, causing Floss to intervene.
“Now, don’t start on Brighty!”
Floss received the same treatment as Bright-Eyes as she tried to calm them down and quickly turned on Lance again.
“It was Lance’s idea to come here!”
Lance’s ears fell back on his head, and he moved backwards away from them. As the others approached him, Spectrum flew in front of him, baring her teeth and almost growling. The others stepped back. She let out a harsh breath through her nose and scraped her front hoof on the ground. Lance stared silently as the mare protected him. Once she had set enough fear into them she stood straight again.
“Don’t blame Lance. It was me who convinced you to come, but you all did come with us. We’re a group. We came here together, and we’ll leave together.”
Once again, the motivational speech had won over the hearts of her friends, however she became somewhat aggressive again when thinking about how they were treating Lance moments ago. The hair on her back rose a little and her ears stuck up higher than normal. She spoke through clenched teeth.
“And if you ever try to hurt him again…”
Her eyes welled up with tears as she realised how she was acting. Of course they wouldn't hurt him, they were his friends. She was being out of line. The Pegasus shut her eyes tightly and flew onto a small thunder cloud above them to hide her tears. The others stared at her, eyes full of worry. Lance was the first to attempt to speak to her.
“Spec.”
He was ignored. He frowned, somewhat irritated. He rose and flew up to the cloud, sitting beside her. Their conversation was inaudible to the others. They saw Lance snuggle her a little and use his hoof to wipe her tears. He then whispered something in her ear, causing her to ‘woop’ loudly, flying into the air and somersaulting several times before sheepishly landing on the ground again to congregate with the others again.
Despite their friends’ clear interest in what had happened on that cloud, Spectrum and Lance were silent about it, trotting ahead of their friends. Eventually, the ponies found the exit to the woods and ran excitedly towards it, almost running into Rainbow Dash in the process.
“Spectrum Streak! What in Equestria were you thinking?!”
The parents of the others were also stood behind the blue mare and her husband, clearly unamused by their venture. Spectrum was about to speak up when Lance stepped forward, wincing a little at the sight of Princess Celestia, his mother Princess Twilight and even Princess Cadence and Shining Armour. He wouldn’t let his friends be blamed for his shenanigans. Especially not Spectrum.
“It was me who started all of this. I just wanted to prove myself to the royal guards. It’s my pride that caused this. I’m sorry.”
He hung his head. All of the ponies present stared in surprise. The most surprised being Spectrum. Lance was not known to apologise and had usually let his friends take the punishment for his actions. There was something tugging at him this time that encouraged him to take some responsibility. Shining Armour stepped forward.
“Kiddo, you have proven yourself. Not by being irrational and risking your life, but by taking initiative and apologising for your mistakes. You’re not only showing yourself to be a great soldier, but an even greater Prince.”
The stallion ruffled his nephew’s mane. Lance grinned at his uncle and turned to look at his friends, who were all beaming at him. They trotted next to him and hugged him. All except for Spectrum Streak, who stared in awe. The parents of the ponies all smiled at the sight of them, remembering their own youth. Lance turned around to face Spectrum and walked over to her, kissing her cheek softly.
“I think you were awesome today, Spec. You’ll always be my favourite Wonderbolt. Now, about that date…”
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed my very first FIMFiction story. This took almost four months to complete and reread, but there may be some mistakes, so please do let me know if you find any. All of these characters are part of my next generation, which you can view here: http://sleepyeyedsunrise.deviantart.com/
