Equilibrium, Book 1: The First Human.

October 13, 1000, C.E.
Ponyville.

Well the past few days have been odd, to say the least. Soarin showed up out of nowhere and started trying to hang out with everyone. It didn't go so well from what I can see. The girls don't like to have him hanging around although I can't really imagine why. He seems like a nice guy from what I can see. Oh well, the poor guy'll have to find some stallion's to hang out with. On another note Dash's birthday gift is coming along nicely. Rarity even allowed me to help out with the prototype. I'm really glad my mom was an arts and crafts nut. That combined with an entire year of sewing class and Fluttershy's knowledge of sewing has done wonders for my own skill's. I have to go out later on today to try out the prototype and even if it fails I'll have 'mom' there to help out just in case. No time like the present to get over my insane fear of heights.

8:13 A.M.

John sat up as he lounged around in his bed. It was the weekend and the farm was peaceful and quiet. One of the rare times it was like this. The family was up and about and John had yet to make an appearance. He'd expected somepony to come looking for him and as soon as he rolled over he was greeted with the sound of a soft knock on his door. He smiled as he rolled over and flopped out of bed landing his feet.

"Come in." He said as he went over to his dresser and grabbed a pair of pants to put on. As his door opened he was greeted by the sight of his little sister rushing in and jumping onto his bed and began to roll around in it. He got his pant's on and looked over to her.

"Well hello to you to sis." She shot him smile as she hopped down and trotted over to him.

"Hello." She said rearing up and giving him a hug. He held her close as he slowly began to move his fingers along her sides. This elicited a set of giggle's from Apple Bloom as John quickly sped up his tickling.

"Eech no!" Apple Bloom tried to pull away but it was too late. John grabbed ahold of his sister and hoisted her over his shoulder.

"You have enraged the tickle bandit dear, Apple Bloom." He said as he set her down on his bed. leaving her belly exposed.

"How do you plee?" He asked as Apple Bloom giggled and kicked around feebly. She gave him some puppy eyes as she stiffed her smile.

"I plead the fifth." She said as John looked at her with a soft grin.

"Hmmm. Not good enough." He stated as he bent down and began to bow raspberries against her stomach. This caused her tickle nerves to go into overload. She continued to squeal in joy as John mercilessly let the tickle bandit loose upon his sister. The two were so preoccupied with there tickle fight they didn't even notice the sound of hooves coming up the stairs.

"Well well, what do we have here?" The voice caused both parties to stop and give her sheepish looks. John looked up from his position on the floor as Apple Bloom pinned him to said floor with her impressive strength. They both looked over to see Applejack giving them both an amused smirk.

"Looks like I missed the party." She said as she trotted into the room staring at her younger siblings. John gave Apple Blom a wink as he sat upsetting her across his lap.

"Oh hey, there sis." He smiled as AJ stopped and sat down before them. AJ looked between the two and just laughed.

"So what brought on this little scuffle huh?" Apple Bloom piped up.

"Just spur of the moment." She smiled as AJ let her guard down. John just started giggling.

"What so funny their big guy?" Aj asked feeling out of the loop.

"Aj you didn't miss the party. In fact your right on time." He said as Apple Bloom jumped her older sister. By the time she even knew what was going on AJ was at the center of a tickle fest with all sides of her that she couldn't adequately defend getting a tickle or two to them. The sound of their laughter began to waift downstairs causing Granny Smith to let out a chuckle at their antics.

"Ah to be young again." She smiled as her memories began to surface from the recesses of her mind. Big Mac came over and gave Granny a soft hug as he looked upstairs. He smiled as he shook his head.

"They seem to be having a lot of fun up there." He went over to the table and set the dishes out for breakfast.

"Let's give them a few more minutes." He said as Granny joined him at the table. She sat at the head of the table and smiled as the laughter continued to assail their ears. The duo were son Joined by Aion who rubbed a little bit of sleep out of his eyes.

"What's going on upstairs?" He asked stifling a yawn. Big Mac looked down at him and smiled. He then nodded to the stairs.

"Go on up there and see for yourself."

8:32 P.M.

The group of family members came down the stairs giggling the whole way as they made their way to the table. Granny and Big Mac gave them all of them soft smiles as they all sat down.

"So how'd everything go this mourning?" Granny asked as Applejack stifled a giggle and tried to composed herself. Her hat was a little lopsided from the roughhousing upstairs but she was still able to give Granny a smile. Aion meanwhile had the biggest grin attached to his muzzle.

"Oh, everything went just fine Granny." She kicked a hoof under the table scoring a hit on John's leg as he tried to tickle her flank with his toes. He winced in pain as AJ smirked while Granny just tithered at their antics. Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was gathering her plate of food and sat back down next to John whom she began to cuddle with as she ate. As Applejack regaled the family with an itinerary of what the day was going to consist of Aion and Apple Bloom began to discuss their own plans for the day.

"So sis how are the other crusader's doing?" Apple Boom thought about the other's as she tried to swipe a peach from John's plate. His vigilance, however, caught her every time she set about using her fork to try and roll one of his peach's from his plate onto her's. Finally, she just gave up.

"Well, I know for a fact that Sweetie Belle is going to be busy at Rarity's today and Scootaloo is hanging out Rainbow Dash today." John had a random thought spring into his mind as he looked around the table.

"How about we have a family picnic?" He suddenly blurted out causing the table to stop talking and give him a look of confusion as they all thought about the idea. Granny let out a soft chuckle as she looked at the family gathered around the table.

"Now that sounds mighty nice for such a beautiful day outside like today."

11:27 A.M.
Outskirts of Ponyville.

The family had sent the better part of the day making an Apple family sized picnic basket for the six of them. Shoot they even made some more just in case anyone else decided to join them in their little family outing. They ended up picking a nice picturesque area on a hilltop overlooking the Everfree Forest. John helped Big Mac haul there wagon laden down with food and supplies up the hill. With one final heave, the duo got it up to their picnic spot. The two set some wedge's in front of the wheels to keep the wagon up there with them and soon the family was setting up their area getting it ready for the day to come.

"OK Y'all let's wrap it up," AJ called out as the group all got settled down for the feast ahead. As Granny Smith led the family in a quick prayer to Faust above John couldn't help but grin as a roaring sound reached his ear's. With the prayer done John looked around to see if his favorite pony had decided to stop by. He didn't see her prismatic mane at all and just shrugged as the food was passed around. The others, however, wore smiles as they looked up to see Rainbow on a cloud with a hoof to her muzzle. Slowly she began to make the cloud float to earth right behind John. Dash motioned for one of the family to get his attention. AJ rolled her eye but decided to play along before Apple Bloom's giggling gave their plan away however she decided to take it a step further as a devious smirk played across her muzzle.

"So John how are things going at the spa?" She asked as John took a bite out of his sandwich. He chewed and swallowed it with a contemplative look on his face.

"Well, things are going great actually." He thought about it some more as a smirk came to him.

"Yeah, I can safely say that I enjoy making it." He shrugged. "It makes ponies happy and I enjoy seeing you guys smile so it's a win-win." He smiled as AJ just chuckled. She looked behind him at Dash and winked. Dash looked confused.

"So I hear that Dash stopped by for a message. How'd that go?" She asked as John nearly choked on his sandwich. Dash stopped her planed thunder raid on John's eardrums and merely watched in horror as the family all began to snicker. She knew this would happen. She expected it even. Before AJ could embarrass John any further Dash made her presence known by loudly clearing her throat.

"Hey, there guy's!" She loudly proclaimed as John whipped his head around in shock.

"Holy Shit!" He yelled as his sandwich was sent flying through the air. On reflex, John sent a fist flying in the direction of the voice. That caught Dash off guard as she saw the fist flying towards her chest. She saw it coming and puffed out her chest fur. The fist hit but to her, it felt as if someone had hit her with a pillow. It wasn't exactly soft but it wasn't really hard either. John looked horrified while Dash looked a little impressed.

"Wow, nice punch there stretch." She complimented as She sat down as if nothing had happened. The rest of the picnic wasn't even fazed by the action. Meanwhile up in the sky Soarin who had been following Dash was not amused. He smirked as he looked a the little happy family. From his vantage point, Soarin could see how John's eye's lit up when Dash had complimented him. He just gagged.

"That's it time to put this freak in his place." Soarin cracked his neck and leapt from his cloud up high.

12:00 P.M.

"So there we were all covered in tree sap and feather's again." Apple Bloom said looking rather perturbed as the memory replayed itself in her mind. John just snickered.

"So how long ago was that?" He asked as Apple Bloom thought about it.

"Let's see we all turned sixteen this year so about ten year's ago." She said as she looked at her still blank flank. She sighed and looked forlorn until she felt a hand upon her head. She looked over to see John had scooted over and wrapped an arm around his sister's back.

"Don't worry about it, sis." She gave her a smile.

"Trust me when I say it'll come to you in due time." He said as he ruffled her mane. She let out a giggle as she swatted his hand away.

"You say that but even you know what want to do with your life." John just laughed.

"Correction." He said catching everyone attention. "I used to know what I wanted to do with my life before I ended up here." He stated as he took yet another sandwich and passed it over to Dash you happily took it with a thank you. Apple Bloom gave him a curious look.

"What do you mean you used to know?" John was about to answer but a large gust of wind came by and blew him over. While John might have been blind to the magic that just happened the Apple Family and Dash weren't. They all scanned the sky's looking for the pony responsible only for Dash to let out a groan as she pressed a hoof to her snout.

"Why is he here?" She grumbled as Apple Bloom went and helped her brother up. As soon as he was back on his feet he saw Soarin coming in for a landing. Oblivious to the stallion's anger towards him John gave him a wave.

"Hey, dude!" He called out causing Dash to groan again and shoot the Apple Family a look of pleading frustration. They all nodded at once. Applejack shot Soarin a scowl.

"Mess with my brother will you!?" She snickered as looked over to Apple Bloom and gave her a nod. Apple Bloom smiled menacingly as her hoof began to glow a deep green color.