Equilibrium, Book 1: The First Human.

August 29, 1000, C.E.
7:59 A.M.

Rainbow Dash proceeded to go through her morning routine as she stretched out her leg's and extended her wing's out to there fullest. Once that was done she trotted downstairs to her kitchen and grabbed a protein shake she had made the night before.

"Hm, what else?" She wondered as her eye's drifted over her surroundings. Her eye's lit up as they fell on her saddle bag's sitting next to her door propped up against her side table. As she reached for the bag her eye's glanced over at the table and she stopped mid step. She looked at the picture on the small table and smiled. She grabbed her bag with one wing and the picture with the other. She sighed as she slipped the saddlebag's on her back and set the picture back down.

"I've got to go and see how the girls are doing." She vowed as she opened her front door and was greeted with a nice soft breeze that alway's blew up at her house's high altitude. A smirk adorned her muzzle as she stepped out into her front porch and let the wind blow through her mane sending her ponytail fluttering in the breeze as her bangs were pushed aside and plastered to her forehead. Her eye's scanned the airway's as she trotted to the edge of her front porch and looked down at Ponyville below. Her house like all other cloud-based construct's had drifted some during the night.

"I can take care of that later." She pushed the future work out of her mind as she lazily trotted over to the edge and began her freefall to the earth below. The rush of wind passing her by greeted her ear's as she dived through the air. Slowly she flexed her primary's getting a feeling of the air space around her.

"All's clear." Without a second thought she spun around and snapped her wing's open causing little sparks of electricity to cascade throughout her wing's as the friction began to pile up upon them. With a mighty flap and a crack of thunder she dissipated the build-up of electron's that had found themselves clinging to her wing's and she set off toward's the town below.

"First off gotta stop by pinky's." She smiled as she thought about her mourning routine.

"Gotta get that back in order." She skimmed across the air wave's as she glided through the sea of wind and spotted her destination off to her left. As she landed in front of her friend's place of work a familiar scent tickled her nose. Recognizing it's owner she allowed her self to chuckle.

"How could I forget to say hey to the big guy." She smirked. She opened the door and was assailed by the many smells of Suger Cube Corner's confections and pastries. Pinky Pie meanwhile was helping a customer with there order, balancing on her hind hoof roller skate's while she held a note pad in one hoof and a pencil in the other.

"All right so that'll be one French Vanilla stack of pancakes with a large coffee hold the sugar and add several creams, and for the little guy," She smiled at a little colt who blushed from the attention of such a bubbly mare, Pinky smiled as she continued to list off there order. "He'll have the short stack with a side of orange juice and a small helping of hash brown's, is that correct?" she asked. The father and son both nodded as Pinky ripped the order off of her pad and gave the two a big smile.

"All righty you two just wait here and your order will be out faster then you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." The father and son gave her an extremely puzzled look as she rolled off toward's the kitchen's with there order tucked into her hat. As she rolled past the counter her smile grew even more when she saw Rainbow Dash standing there. Dash waved as Pinky rolled past her and vaulted over the counter landing in front of the cash register. Dash just whistled in amazement.

"Wow Pink's where do you find the time to learn all those crazy gymnastics?" She asked as Pinky giggled.

"Well the past few weeks have been a bit boring so I decided to teach myself a little thing or two." She beamed at her friend who raised an eyebrow.

"How could you do that?" she asked as Pinky held up a hoof.

"One sec Dash." She turned around and put her head through a little window behind the counter.

"Hey, Johnny we got a father and sone who want a number 7 and 17 respectively." She called out. John chuckled as he alway's did whenever he saw Pinky's head sticking through the wall. He gave her a soft pat as he took the order from her hat and hung it up with several other's that he had to work on.

"Ok will do Pink's." He gave her a thumbs up to which she gave him a salute. As she began to retract her head her eye's went wide.

"Oh and by the way your favorite customer's here." She said waggling her eyebrow's at him. John just laughed.

"Oh, and who would that be?" He asked as he flipped a pancake in one skillet while he stirred some egg's in another. Pinky just giggled. She managed to squeeze both of her forehooves though the window along with her notepad and pencil and quickly jotted down an order. she then handed it over to John who looked it over.

"When you get done with that order bring it to table six and find out." She gave him a playful smirk before pulling her self out of the window and back to the cash register. John just chuckled as he set the order on his line and continued cooking for the other customer's.

8:20 A.M.

"So Pinky how have thing's been going for you over the past few weeks?" Dash asked as Pinky rolled herself over and sat down with Dash at table six. Pinky grinned as she brought a pastry up to her face and took a bite out of it. She swallowed it before she answered her friend a fact that Dash was thankful for.

"Well, there's not a lot of mare's or stallion's at the gym during the heat so I just went and signed up for some gymnastic classes while it was empty." She said taking another bite out of her muffin. Dash nodded.

"Yeah, I bet it was empty." She smirked. "I bearly saw a single pony out and about when I went out to practice my aerobatic routine." As she was just about to get up and grab a napkin from the front counter she was stopped by a tray of food being put in front of her.

"And here are your order's lady's," John smirked as the duo gave him huge smile's.

"Hey there stretch!" Dash hopped up and wrapped John in a hug. He chuckled as he gave one back.

"Hey, there fuzzball. Long time no see." He smirked as Dash gave him a light tap on the shoulder.

"So how was your first heat?" Dash wiggled her eyebrow's as John just smirked.

"Any mare catch your eye?" She teased while John just laughed.

"Hah fat chance of that happening." He said as he pulled up a chair. Dash just smirked.

"Come on you can't tell me you weren't even the least bit curious?" Dash asked faining shock. John just grinned.

"You forget I live with Twilight. Any curiosity I had was beaten out of me the moment I got here by the extremely thorough and detailed questioner that she had on hand." He then sighed and pulled out his checklist and crossed off one line below the others.

"Beside's I highly dought I'm on any ponies radar as far as becoming a potential coltfriend." He smiled as he leaned back in his chair keeping his balance so as to not fall over. Dash just smirked.

"Just you wait for it big guy, one day some mare is going to come and sweep you off your feet." She giggled as his face split into a grin.

"Then what are you going to do?" She asked as she leaned on the table to get a closer look at her friend. He was starting to get some hair on his face. He just kept up a cool casual face and shrugged.

"Don't know really. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it." He smiled as Dash rolled her eye's.

"Stallion's don't you all ever get tired of not having a plan?" She ribbed as John just smirked.

"Nope. I don't know about other guy's but I personally like to plan as far ahead as I can and then for the rest of the time I just wing it." He smiled as Dash snickered. Meanwhile Pinky was just sitting enjoying the conversation between two of her best friend's. The two kept on talking as Pinky slinked away to go take care of a customer that had come up to the counter. As soon as she was done taking her order the bell for the door opened and in came the sex on a stick that was Hot Shot, or so he liked to believe.

"Hello, Pinky!" He smirked as Pinky visibly cringed at him calling out her name. She put on a front of a smile and greeted him like any other customer.

"Hey there Hot Shot." She said glancing over at Dash and John. They were lost in catching up with one another and Pinky meanwhile was trying to not gag Hot Shot with a wooden spoon.

"So what'll it be?" She asked while trying to be polite. Hot Shot grinned as he began his order in a rather sultry tone.

"Oh you know the usual black with several pumps of cream, hold the sugar." He said as he leaned on the counter that confident smirk never once leaving his muzzle. Pinky gave a forced giggle at his rather lewd tone of voice and went into the back to get Hot Shot's order.

"Sweet Celestia please let Dashy be ready for him today." She prayed as she went about getting the perverse stallion's beverage ready. Meanwhile, John and Dash were all caught up.

"So how's practice going?" John asked. Dash just shrugged.

"Eh it's going." She said causing John to smile.

"I smell a butt coming." He interjected. Dash snickered as she rolled her eyes.

"Ha ha very funny." She then sighed. "But," She glanced at his face and smirked as his grin made itself known to the world.

"I haven't exactly been a great friend recently." She said mulling over the last few weeks as John sat there thinking.

"How so?" He asked causing Dash to look at him funnily.

"What do you mean how so?" She asked back.

"I haven't seen any of you in a little over three weeks." She said as John sat there thinking things through. Then he shrugged.

"So." He said causing Dash to give him a look of confusion.

"So? That's all you have to say?" She asked feeling let down. John huffed in amusement.

"Dash sometime's people back where I'm from and ponies to it would seem," He motioned to her. "Just need some alone time. The amount of time varies from person to person and I would assume pony to pony." He then set his chair back down on all fours and leaned on the table looking Dash in the eyes.

"What happened with you and your heat was your's to determine." He smirked as Dash mulled his word's over while he continued.

"You needed to deal with your heat in your own way. If that means that you spend it alone with nothing but yourself and the open air then that's your choice." She gave him a look of curiosity.

"So don't go beating yourself up for not spending your heat with your friend's." He stated. Dash sat there and then huffed in embarrassment letting out a hollow chuckle.

"Wow, I stuck my hoof in my own mouth again." John snickered.

"No, you just felt bad for not being with anypony for three weeks." He said giving her a reassuring pat on the head. She let him get away with this one, mostly because it felt so soothing after all the negative feelings she had come out over the course of the last few minutes.

"Trust me Dash all of our friends will be happy to see you." He smirked. "And I'll even bet you that they'll all understand your reason's for wanting to be alone for the past three weeks." He grinned as Dash did the same.

"You bet? What are the stake's then?" She asked as her fiery spirit was lit up once more. John thought about it and then grinned.

"Well the--"

"Well well look at what we have here!?" Came a voice from just behind John causing him to jump into the air a little. John spun around and came face to muzzle with Hot Shot. Dash got up and walked around to see Hot Shot grinning from ear to ear. Her smile reappeared.

"Hey, dude!" She said trotting over and giving Hot Shot a hug that he gladly returned.

"Hey, Dashy!" He exclaimed as the two broke the hug. Hot Shot glanced over at John.

"Hey there furless!" He raised a hoof as John gave him a bump, a soft smile upon his face.

"Hey to you too." He smirked as Hot Shot joined the duo. John glanced at his watch and shook his head.

"Crap." He glanced at Dash.

"Hey mind if I give you a rain check on that bet?" He asked as he got up and pushed his chair in. Dash just laughed.

"Sure but we've got to hang out later on today." She said as he gave her a thumbs up.

"Definitely. What time are you off work?" He asked as he leaned on the back of the chair. She thought about it.

"Today is a light shift so from nine in the mourning to three in the afternoon." She answered. John nodded.

"Alright. Twilight wants me to come over at four so once I'm done with that I'll see about heading over to the park." He looked at the clock.

"Does five work for you?" He asked as Pinky came out of the kitchen a smile plastered to her face as she skated up to Dash's table. Dash gave him a nod.

"Sound's great." She said giving him a winged salute. John gave his own two-finger salute and headed back to the kitchen.