Canterlot, a sprawling metropolis, capital of Equestria, home to the Princesses that ruled it. Thousands of ponies pass through the city on a daily basis, their business their own. Bars, clubs, and any kind of store imaginable line the street coming from the train station, getting a steady stream of ponies.
In the center of the city stood the colossal castle where the princesses ran the kingdom. Off to the side and tucked away towards the edge of the cliff was the Equestrian Royal Academy. The polished marble glinted in the sun, standing tall and proud just like it was back when it was founded after the three tribes united.
The Academy was full of war relics from ages past, trophy cases lining the hallways as ponies wandered about. Trainees sat in classrooms, taking notes and studying from retired military professionals, learning about Equestrian and military arms history. In the middle of the academy was beautiful fountain, a statue of the pegasi leader Commander Hurricane made from stone. She was the first commander of the Equestrian forces and founded the academy with several other leaders from the different tribes.
Behind the Academy and just before the cliff dropoff, rested a place where one could practice with their sword, shield, or spear, straw dummies held up by sticks as ponies practiced what they learned. Beyond that, an archery range with four targets lined up at sixty yards away.
As the sun began its descent, a group of ponies huddled around one target in particular, a pegasus nervously holding a bow.
“Come on Harmonic, it’s not that hard! You’ve been here for a year now, I’m sure you can hit a simple target!” one yelled, leaning against the fence that separated the targets. His two companions snickered as the pegasus gulped and aimed.
Harmonic pulled the string back with his wing, it went taut and he tried to hold it steady. The arrow bounced around before he let go, the arrow flying straight and true, only to land twenty yards away from the target, digging into the ground.
The three ponies watching roared with laughter, the one that yelled earlier falling over. The pegasus blushed and stared at the arrow, willing it to become alive and sail straight into the bullseye.
“Alright, that’s enough cadets! Don’t you have drills to be practicing?” A gruff voice asked, the four ponies turned to look at the owner. He was an older unicorn, most of his fur starting to grey. Harmonic cringed; it was Sergeant Sunset Lancer, he was in charge of training the cadets that entered, having retired from active duty ten years ago.
The three ponies murmured to themselves, getting up and walking over to the practice dummy. The pegasus grabbed his arrow and went to follow them. “Not you, Private Charge. We need to talk.”
“Yes sir,” he muttered, wishing to be anywhere else as he followed Sunset back inside the Academy and down an all too familiar hallway. Sunset opened his office door, allowing Charge to go in first. He shut the door, walking over and took a seat behind an old oak wood desk, full of papers.
The old unicorn sighed and shook his head sympathetically. “What am I going to do with you Harmonic?”
“S-sir, I can explain-”
“No need, I saw and heard everything.” He paused to stare the cadet in the eyes. “How many times have we been over giving into them?”
“I know sir but… They wouldn’t stop till I proved to them that I could make the shot.”
He sighed again. “I understand the other cadets are a bit of a hoofful, but you need to learn how to ignore them. Once you do, they’ll leave you alone.”
“Yes sir.”
Sunset finally looked up and smiled. “Please, take a seat so we may get on to what I wanted to discuss.”
Harmonic took a seat and tried to get comfy in the stiff wooden chair. “It seems Princess Celestia requested a few guards to go to Ponyville to watch over Princess Twilight.”
Harmonic paused. “Permission to speak freely sir?” Sunset nodded. “I don’t think Princess Twilight needs our help… she seems to handle everything just fine.”
“I agree and I talked to Princess Celestia about it… She was very adamant that we go though. Said she was getting a bad feeling and Twilight would need our help.” He grinned, “funny thing is she also specifically asked for you to be apart of the mission.”
Harmonic blinked, his brain taking a moment to respond. “Me?”
“Yes, I was just as surprised as you are.”
“B-but she has to have seen my record… Why me?”
“I’m going to be blunt with you, I think it was you know who pressuring her again.”
“Why should he care? I’m already in the Academy, what more does he want.” Harmonic’s voice grew cold.
“I don’t know but orders are orders.” He leaned back in his chair, running a hoof through his mane. “We’re leaving on the first train tomorrow at 0600. Pack your stuff tonight and get some rest. Dismissed.”
Harmonic got up and saluted before he turned around and headed out the door back to his bunk. He sighed and held his bow tight against him, several cadets snickered as he walked past. At his bunk, he pulled out his knapsack and put a few things in. Being a guard, he didn’t have many possessions and could always travel light.
Not like they’d let me take a sword anyway… He put away the arrows and bow in their respective cases and put those in the sack as well. He hopped on his bunk, resting his head on his hooves and stared at the ceiling. My first mission huh… He closed his eyes and sighed.
-**-
The train’s whistle echoed across the station as the locomotive gained momentum, steam hissing out of its wheels. Harmonic stared out the window, his knapsack in the seat next to him. Sunset sat across from him, a pair of reading glasses on his snout as he turned the page of a book.
“Sir, if I may-”
“Don’t be so formal Harmonic. We can relax a little,” he chuckled.
“Alright… um… Sunset. I was wondering if you’ve ever been to Ponyville?”
“A few times, nice little town. Although there’s this one mare, as soon as she learns you’re new… I suggest running to the hills.”
“Why’s that?”
He looked up from his book. “You ever meet any of the Elements of Harmony? Harmonic shook his head. “Ah, well, one of them is a earth mare named Pinkie Pie. Great mare, but she can be a little intense… Element of Laughter, and known as the best party thrower…”
“Oh…We’ll be going in guard outfits right?”
“Nope, Princess Celestia wants this to be as low key as possible. To the outside world, we’re just a pair of civis. Only Twilight is allowed to know who we really are.”
“But why? I thought having guards would be good for the town…”
Sunset sighed and looked around; they had picked the last passenger train cart and no pony was in it with them. Their armor was stored in the cart behind them, in the luggage compartment. “Being a guard… isn’t what it used to be. Guards nowadays are looked at shamefully, since we got our flanks hoofed to us during the Changeling invasion… And having both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna kidnapped right from under us forced us to realize just how inadequate we are to handle the new challenges.” He paused and faintly smiled. “I don’t mean to tell you to demoralize you, but the guard… isn’t looked on as favorably as we’d like. And ponies usually don’t like it when we’re in town, makes them close-lipped and hard to work with.”
“I see…”
“Well, it won’t be as bad. Ponyville is a really relaxed town and not much crime happens there. Being the home of Princess Twilight and her friends really helps out there.”
Harmonic sighed and stared out the window, the train chugging through the mountain. He watched as Canterlot got smaller and smaller before the bulk of the mountain hid it from view.
“You ever been outside of Canterlot?”
“Once, when I was little... It was to see an orchestra over in Fillydelphia.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it was for my birthday. Mom wanted to treat me to a little ‘culture’, as she used to to say.”
“How is Penny doing?”
“She’s doing great, she just started another play… uh, I think it was something about a time traveler who saved the world or something, I don’t remember…”
“Same old Penny, I thought she’d retire by now.”
“Hehe, I don’t think so… I asked her about when she would, said she’d go crazy if she just sat down and did nothing at home.”
“Sounds like her alright…” Sunset looked out the window as the train finally emerged from the mountain. He opened his book and went back to reading, Harmonic watching the scenery fly by.
“Hey Sunset?”
“Hm?”
“How is Ponyville?”
Well.. personally I wouldn’t mind retiring there. It’s really quiet, everypony is pretty friendly, always lending anypony a hoof. Even though it always seems trouble comes from that town,” he chuckled, “it’s still probably the safest town in the country.”
“Oh… I see.”
“Trust me, once you see it, you’ll love it.”
“I hope so… Is it as crowded as Canterlot?”
“Oh Celestia no; it’s probably a third of Canterlot’s population. Mostly earth ponies or pegasi. Not a whole lot of unicorns.”
The train whistle reverberated through the cabins as Harmonic turned to the window. Ponyville was just in sight, the haunting Everfree Forest enclosing the little town. Harmonic smashed his face a window, trying to memorize the layout of the town. Sunset chuckled and put a bookmark in his book before he stowed it in his knapsack.
“Not too long now… Oh, Harmonic?”
Harmonic turned his head slightly. “Yeah?”
“Princess Celestia warned that Twilight would probably refuse our help. Even if she does, we must remain in Ponyville and watch her until Princess Celestia calls us back. Understood?”
“Crystal clear sir.”
“Good.”
The train chugged along, Ponyville becoming bigger and bigger till finally the train slowed down and stopped in the station. The wheels hissed and steam billowed from underneath as the whistle rang again the door opened. Ponies piled out and headed to the back of the train to get their luggage. Harmonic and Sunset were the first there and got their luggage, quickly leaving the scene.
Harmonic looked at the town, it was so different than Canterlot. Instead of tall concrete building with fountains and shops lining the street, the homes were simple one to two story wooden houses, a single fountain in the middle. Ponies waved and smiled to each other, stopping to chit chat.
“Now, if I remember, the library is this way…” Sunset muttered before taking a left and went straight into the market area. Harmonic trotted after him, trying to catch up.
Harmonic tried to memorize the route, his head swinging back and forth. He noticed a bright pink pony hopping along, her saddlebags bulging with streamers and balloons. Her mane bounced along with her, somehow staying poofy. “Hey Sunset, who’s that?” he asked and pointed a hoof at the mare.
“That would be Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter.”
“Wait, the one-” He stopped as her large blue eyes scanned the crowd and locked onto his. He blinked and suddenly she was right there, inches away from his snout.
“HIYA!” she yelled and he took a step back, his eardrums ringing. “Welcome to Ponyville! I’m Pinkie Pie, what’s your name?”
“Uh… Harmonic Ch-Charge…”
She grabbed his hoof and shook it energetically, his hoof still shaking it when she let go. “Well it was nice to meet you- Oh! And who are you?!” She turned to Sunset, who had a big grin.
He held out his hoof. “Sunset Lancer.”
“Nice to meet you too,” she shook his hoof just as vigorously. “Well I’d give you the full ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ speal but I’m in a bit of a hurry. Will you be in town in a few hours?”
“Yes, we’re actually looking for the library to say hello to a friend before finding a room to rent.”
“Oh! That’s easy, you just go straight, then take a left, a right, a second left, and finally a right and it’ll be right there! Well I gotta go, see you two soon!” And just as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone, hopping away while humming a tune.
Harmonic blinked, his mind finally turning itself back on. “W-what just happened?”
“That’s Pinkie Pie for you,” Sunset chuckled and followed the mare’s instructions. “I’m glad to see she hasn’t changed.”
Harmonic followed unconsciously, his mind still reeling from the encounter. “Is she always like that?”
“Oh yes, you should've saw her at the Grand Galloping Gala the other year… Boy, what a party. The Nobles were quite upset when she started singing and dancing… Took me and few other guards to calm them.”
“I see… is everypony like that here too?”
“Oh no, Pinkie’s one of a kind as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
“Oh yeah, really hard not too… So wait, you said Princess Twilight lives here with the other Elements?”
Sunset turned and looked at Harmonic, an eyebrow raised. “Did you not learn this in the Academy? I thought this’d be important to know.”
“They did… it’s just, all they said was the Elements of Harmony live in Ponyville… They didn’t tell me about Pinkie, or Twilight… or-” He stopped as he bumped into a cart pulled by an orange mare, her apples spilling all over the place.
Harmonic shook his head as the pony in question stomped over to him, her blonde mane held together by a red bow. A Stetson hat sat on her head, her green eyes locking onto his. Several freckles rested on either side of her mouth as she yelled, “hey watch it- or sorry newcomer, didn’t see ya.” She fixed her hat and sighed when several apples roll away.
“Allow me ma’am,” Sunset said, picking up the apples with magic and deposited them back in the cart.
“Thanks partner, she smiled at him before coughing and sticking out a hoof. “Name’s Applejack.”
“Mine’s Sunset and this is Harmonic-”
Harmonic interrupted. “I’m sorry… I didn’t see the cart…”
“It’s fine, no harm done. It’ll take a lot more than a little bump to bruise mah apples.” She said proudly.
Sunset chuckled as Harmonic reached into his knapsack. “I take it you run a farm?”
“Yes sir! Best apples in all of Equestria. Here try one.” She reached into the pile and grabbed an apple.
“Oh no, I couldn’t-” Harmonic stopped abruptly when she shoved it into his mouth
“First one’s on the house!” Harmonic choked for a moment, not expecting his airway to be blocked by bits of apple. He chewed it, a bit of apple juice dripping out of the corner of his mouth.
“MMmm… fese is weally good!” he said before he swallowed the apple. He grabbed a hooffull of bits and hoofed it to her. “There, that’s for damaging those apples.”
“Oh, Ah couldn’t… It was an accident, no harm done.”
“Still, I should pay for them…”
She looked at the bits for a moment and bit her lip. “Wait a moment,” she said and dug around in the cart, pulling out a bag. She grabbed a dozen apples and put them in the bag. She forced the bag into his hooves and took the bits. “There, now we’re even.”
“But-”
“Don’t argue Harmonic, it’s the only thing Ah’ll accept,” she said determinedly, looking him square in the eye.
Harmonic looked to Sunset for help, who shrug. Finally, Harmonic sighed. “Okay… if you insist.”
Sunset cleared his throat. “Well, I hate to be rude Ms. Applejack, but if you don’t mind, we have somepony to meet.”
“Oh, no worries, Ah was just on my way to set up shop. If Ah may ask, who are ya’ll meeting?”
“Princess Twilight.”
“Oh, Ah see… well, Ah don’t wanna waste anymore time if yer meetin’ with Twi. It was nice ta meetcha.” She said, giving a wave before walking away.
“Nice to meet you too…” Harmonic waved as the two ponies continued onto the library. “Well she was nice…”
“Yep, also an Element too… Do you remember which?”
“Um… honesty right?”
“You are correct… I’m impressed you remembered.”
“Oh ha ha; I forget one thing…”
“I’m just teasing, lighten up,” he grinned at the pegasus before looking up. “Oh look, there it is.” He pointed to literally the largest tree either of them had either seen.
It was three stories tall, the entire top floor hidden by the canopy, a few windows and a balcony on the top. A sign right next to it had a picture of a book, the sign swinging on well oiled chains. The door itself had a picture of a candle on the top part.
“You ready?” Harmonic nodded as the two walked up to the door and knocked.
“It’s a public library! No need to knock!” A voice shouted from the other side as the handle was encased in a purple glow and swung open. Princess Twilight Sparkle herself opened the door, her wings rustled as she tilted her head. “Oh hello, how can I help you two?”
The guards bowed. “Princess Twilight, it’s an honor to finally meet you personally.”
She blushed and shook her head. “Oh no no no, please get up. You don’t need to bow to me. I’m still your average pony.”
They got up and nodded. “Princess, if we may have a word, inside.”
“Oh?” she paused before blushing harder. “Oh, please come inside,” she moved aside as the two walked inside, the library a clutter of books and parchment, the strong smell of ink clung to the air. “Would you two like anything to drink?”
“No thanks Princess.”
“Please, call me Twilight. Now, how can I help you two?”
Sunset cleared his throat as they sat down. “My name is Sergeant Sunset Lancer from the Royal Academy and with me is Private Harmonic Charge. We’re here on orders of Princess Celestia to ‘watch and guard you’.” He grabbed a parchment with his magic from his knapsack and floated it over to the Princess.
The alicorn read over the parchment, letting Harmonic get a good look at her. The others were right, she was beautiful. She had a purple coat, groomed to perfection. Her mane and tail was deep violet, a streak of blue and rose running through them. Her elegant wings rustled nervously, the feathers neat and straightened. Her sparkling violet scanned the parchment with worry, rereading it several times.
Sunset elbowed Harmonic as he quickly looked away before she looked at them. “I told her many times that I don’t need to be watched…”
“I know ma’am, but you know, orders are orders…”
Twilight sighed and reread the letter. “Well… do you know why she suddenly sent you two now?”
“Honestly no idea, all she said was that she had a bad feeling.”
“I see…” She got up and paced for a moment. “Well… I guess if Princess Celestia is that worried…”
“We’ll be as discreet as possible, but it’d be better if no pony knew we were really guards though…”
“Yeah, I heard from my brother you’ve been having a lot of problems since they were kidnapped.”
Sunset sighed. “That isn’t even the half of it… But please, don’t worry about us.”
She nodded. “Oh, where are you two staying?”
“I booked two rooms at the inn by Sugarcube Corner.”
“I’d let you stay here, but all our rooms are a bit… packed.” She faintly smiled.
“No worries Princess, we wouldn’t want to impose.” Sunset turned to look at Harmonic. “In fact, why don’t you go check in and drop our stuff off?”
Harmonic went to argue, sensing that they were going to talk behind his back, but sighed and nodded. “Okay, I’ll be back… Where am I going exactly? Sir?”
“Look for the giant cupcake… it’s really hard to miss. The inn’s right across the street.”
He got up and grabbed Sunset’s bag, shouldering it before he saluted and made his way over to the door. As soon as he shut it, he could hear the two of the talking about something. He made sure the weight was equal along his back and unfurled his wings. Best way to find something is from the sky… He launched himself into the sky, taking a moment to balance himself.
He quickly noticed the giant cupcake building, the shiny cherry top blinding him. He leisurely made his way there and landed in front of the inn.
Author's Note
I have no idea in the world where this even came from. I was scrolling through Rarity pictures and was thinking about her Element... and one thing led to another. Hehe... Well I hope you liked the first chapter; any comments/concerns/questions, leave them below and I'll answer when I see them. Thanks for reading!
