Balance within Harmony

The eleven young fillies and colts of Cheerliee’s schoolclass were all excited and being generally noisy at the best of times, the added excitement of a school trip caused them to go into overload. The class had to get to school early for the trip, but they hadn’t been told where they were off to, despite nagging their teacher all week. But the two large hot air balloons tethered out in-front of the schoolhouse indicated that wherever they are going, they wouldn't be walking there!

The class was getting more and more excited, and Cheerilee would have told them off but she was equally excited about todays trip, to a place that she had never been to before. When the final student turned up, she managed to eventually get the classes attention.

“So…what shall we do today?” she asked pretending to act all innocently

“CLASS TRIP” eleven excited voices yelled back.

“Okay then” Cheerlie fake rolled her eyes back “So, do you all have your sealed permission slips?”

Ten hooves went up in the air, but the solitary pegasus in the class that day looked round in confusion “Permission slip?”

Cheerilee went round and collected the ten slips from the ponies “Yes, for today’s trip I needed the parents permissions” She opened and check all the slips whilst the class went quiet.

“So, why don’t I have a permission slip?” Scootaloo cried “Does that mean I can’t go?”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were as distraught as their fellow blank flank “Well, if Scootaloo can’t go, we won’t go!”

“Okay everypony, lets all head outside”

The class rushed outside, with the three sad crusaders bringing up the year, almost being pushed out by Cheerilee. Outside, the two Balloons were being checked over by Twilight, who apart from being the local librarian, royal protégé and the Element of Magic, also found time somehow to be one of the best hot air balloonists in Equestria.

He nodded to Cheerilee, who was trying to keep some sense of calm amongst eight excited, and three depressed, foals “Scootaloo, please go and stand by Twilight”

As the filly started the lone walk over, she was grabbed by her two friends. “No! If she’s not going, then we aren’t either!” Sweetie declared

“Now Sweetie Belle, Applebloom. Do as your teacher tells you.” Twilight scolded his soon to be sister in law. The two fillies knew better than misbehave around any of their siblings friends, so slowly backed off and left Scootaloo to walk and stand next to Twilight. As she reached the colt, the filly a noticed a deliberate wink from the unicorn, much to Scootaloo’s confusion.

Cheerilee then told her ten remaining students to line up in two rows of five, and she stood behind them. Twilight then began a brief balloon safety lecture to the eleven, before asking them if they were ready for the trip. A chorus of yes was the response, although two fillies did not join in, still sulking.

“Except, you’re not quiet ready” Twilight mused, and his horn started to glow. He enveloped the eleven ponies with a magic field, much to their of the surprise. The feeling caused most of them to gasp and giggle, except for two of the fillies which recognised the feeling from having been in Twilights aura more than once before.

Once the spell was finished, Cheerilee went back to the front of the class. “Now, can anypony guess where we are off to today?”

They all shrugged their shoulders, except for two who were moping “Don’t care, it won’t be fun without Scootaloo” Applebloom whispered.

Twilight led Scootaloo back over to the others “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle. Your loyalty to your friend is wonderful and endearing. But your fears are misplaced”

“But she doesn't have a permission slip?” Applebloom continued to mope

“Yes, but the slip wasn't for the trip, but for the spell” Cheerilee explained to her class “So if Scootaloo didn’t need a spell that the rest of us needed, that should tell you where we are off to?”

Scootaloo started jumping around saying “I know, I know” whilst the rest of the class still seemed a little confused.

“Okay Scootaloo, where are we off to?”

Scootaloo took position to the front of the class and cleared her throat, milking the moment “I guess today we’re going to learn about the weather…we’re off to Clousdale? Where thanks to these babies” she flapped her wings “I don’t need a cloud-walking spell”

Cheerilee confirmed Scootaloo was right casuing the class to cry out a cheer, especially the orange pagasus’s two best friends who run over and gave their friend a hoofbump “We’re so glad you’re coming” Sweetie hugged

The eleven foals went running over to the balloons, and jumped in, with Cheerilee thanking Twilight for the spell and getting into the balloon with less students. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy then landed in the Schoolyard, Rainbow landing with a massive thump to grab everyponys attention, whilst Fluttershy landed as delicately as a feather.

“Mum, Dad? what are you doing here?”

“Well Scoots, somepony needs to give you a guided tour, and help get the balloons up there” Fluttershy responded

Fluttershy tied the lead ropes from one of the balloons to her, whilst Rainbow took the ropes from the heavier balloon to him. Twilight undid the guide ropes holding the balloons down, and the two pegasi took up the slack pulling the balloons up and forwards towards Clousdale, to the chorus of gasps from the ponies onboard.

***

The trip to clousdale doesn’t take long for most pegasi, even less for Rainbow, but safely towing a balloon full of non flying ponies meant he couldn’t go as quick as he usually flew. And he didn’t want his Fluttershy to overexert herself trying to keep up. But the passengers didn’t mind as they enjoyed the view, with most of them never being airborne before, and none of them higher than Scootaloo's cloud patio.

Upon arrival, they landed the balloons in the middle of a large empty cloud, where a couple of ponies helped take the ropes from Rainbow and Fluttershy and secure the balloons to the ‘ground’. The twelve ponies looked out from inside the balloons with trepidation. Afterall, as either Earth or Unicorn ponies their natural instincts were hard to ignore.

A stallion in a white coat came over with a clipboard “Hello. I’m Sunshine Glisten, the factory forepony. It’s time to start the tour”

Most of the foals, and their teacher, looked at each other nervously, none of them wanting to be the first to move. Suddenly three of them just jumped out of the balloons onto the cloud

The forepony came over to them “Wow, you’re three brave fillies, normally it takes a lot more coaxing out than that”

Scootaloo flapped her wings a little awkwardly as if to say I’ve got no excuse, and Applebloom spoke up “It’s not our first time, Sir!”

Seeing three of her students be brave, Cheerilee gingerly got out of the balloon, followed by the three colts Pipsqueak, Snips and Snails annoyed that the Crusaders had shown them up, again! The six younglings started pulling at the cloud with their hooves, five of them had barely touched the stuff before. Eventually, only Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon remained in the balloons, despite the best efforts of the pegasi to coax them out.

“Wait, I have an idea” Sweetie Belle declared, and bounced over to the balloons, and called out loudly “I guess a cutie mark doesn’t make you daring, that’ll have to be left to us braver blank flanks”

The uptight fillies glared at the smug unicorn in front of them, and slowly got out of the balloon, giving Sweetie a dirty look. The unicorn filly bounced back to her friends, giving the forepony a wink along the way, causing him and Cheerilee to laugh

“Go on then, time to study up on, you know, clouds and stuff” Rainbow declared "We'll catch up with you later"

***

The morning had been spent going around the weather factory, and the school trip had broken for lunch. The eleven foals were sat on a cloud eating a lunch provided for them, whilst Cheerilee was chatting to the handsome forepony.

Rainbow and Fluttershy had left the class to themselves during the morning, not wanting to embarrass their daughter. They wondered if any of the ponies would be as foolish as Pinkie in tasting the rainbow pool, they expected not but couldn’t wait to find out – they bet on Applebloom out of them all. However, they were going to join in the afternoon tour of Clousdale itself, as they could put their own personal views and stories into the sights, especially given Rainbow was the reigning young flyer champion.

Cheerilee was busy flirting and was about to ask the forepony if he ever visited the ground, when suddenly the sound of screaming filled the air, and quickly started getting softer. All the workers looked around to see what was wrong, and at first nobody spotted the issue, but Cheerilee then screamed out “Where are the foals?”

The cloud that the eleven students was on had suddenly broke up, causing all of them to fall towards to the ground. A cloud break up is such a rare event that everypony just froze up in shock, and it took a few seconds before somepony raised the alarm. But by the time anypony had really reacted, the students were already falling fast.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were just on the way back to the group when they heard the screams followed by the alarm. They sped off towards the sound and upon arrival had seen everypony pointing down. Fearing that one of the group had fallen off, Rainbow started charging down towards the ground without waiting.

As he picked up speed, he could just make out a group of ponies falling in front of him. They had been falling for a while and were at terminal velocity, as well as having a headstart on him. Oh no, not this again he thought to himself, but then he was the fastest pony around so if anybody had a chance of saving them, it was him.

As he dived down, he saw that it was the entire class falling, a huge weight of ponies to try to save. However, he noticed something else to cause him feel sick with fear. Scootaloo had flapped her wings instinctively when falling and despite not slowing her fall it had slowly pushed her away from where the others were falling.

Rainbow realised he had the worse decision in his life to make, as there was no way to reach both the main group and the filly. So he had to choose between saving ten foals, including the sisters of his closest friends, or save one filly he had loved since they had adopted her – that was the worst possible choice for anypony to be faced with.

He took a large gulp and made the hardest decision he would ever make - all he knew that despite the feelings for the pegasus, he had to save as many ponies as he could.

It was just then he noticed a yellow and pink blur right behind him. Fluttershy? he thought in confusion How on equestria is she keeping up with me?. But he didn’t have time to dwell on it as he continued to speed up.

Fluttershy was scared on how fast she was travelling down towards the ground. There would be no way the poor flying filly could normally move that fast through the air, but using the slipstream from behind rainbow she was able to keep up. And no doubt knowing her beloved daughter was in trouble had it’s part to play in it.

“Fluttershy” Rainbow yelled “You have to save Scootaloo”

“What, me?” she yelled back

“Yes, you couldn’t carry the ten foals together, so I’ll have to. That leaves our daughter down to you”

“I can’t!” Fluttershy yelled back

“You have to. I believe in you, I always have. Now you have to believe in you…”

Rainbow couldn’t talk anymore as he poured all of his effort into his speed. As the ground approached the pair grew faster and faster, causing a familiar cone to form around Rainbows front hooves You can do it Rainbow…you have to!. Fluttershy was still somehow keeping up in the slipstream and noticed that a faint pink mist was forming around her hooves.

Rainbow suddenly broke the sound barrier causing a Sonic Rainboom visible to all the ponies watching in horror from the clouds above. He dove off to the left to grab the ten foals just in time, moments before they had hit the ground.

At rainbow had turned off, Fluttershy saw Scootaloo falling for the first time. Seeing the daughter she cared for so much in mortal danger inspired her in a way only a parent can be. Despite the sudden loss of slipstream, she willed her whole body on and unbeknown to the filly she also broke through the sound barrier…

Scootaloo had been facing upwards as she had been falling, and had seen Rainbow heading down, but to her horror turn off towards her friends. She then saw her mother racing towards her and suddenly the sky lit up with a pink flash. The flightless foal felt a familiar pair of hoofs grab her and carry her just above the ground before slowly starting to curve upwards back towards the sky.

The gathered ponies looking down in dread saw two trails forming - One of the trails was the familiar rainbow coloured trail that everypony had seen at the Young Flyers Competition and other events since. But the other was new, a pink and yellow trail with blue Butterflys mixed it. And this trail started out from a pink growing shockwave, not round but bent inwards in places to form a Butterfly shape. And the two trails separating, curving and flying back to Clousdale caused a perfect inverted heart shape.

When they saw that everypony was safe, they started celebrating the daring rescue and could finally enjoy the spectacular sight of the heart symbol made from a combined Sonic Rainboom and the instantly dubbed the Sonic Butterfly…

***

As soon as Rainbow and Fluttershy had reached Cloudsdale, they dropped their respective cargos onto the closest cloud and collapsed on it themselves. Breaking the sound barrier was easy enough for Rainbow, but carrying ten foals at supersonic speeds would tire out even the strongest of the Wonderbolts. Fluttershy like most pegasi was of course not built to go that fast, and she struggled to catch her breath.

A large group of pegasi came flying over, some of them carrying Cheerliee to her students, and started checking over both the heroes and the eleven scared foals. The foals were fine and were slowly getting over their shock, but as the adrenaline rush started to wear off they had some very confused emotions. And as they processed just how close to death they had come, some were sick.

Fluttershy and Rainbow lay on the cloud panting, surrounded by concerned ponies. One of them was a doctor, who having quickly checked over the pair declared both were basically fine, although Fluttershy had damaged her wings and had to rest them for a few days. The pair lay there and just looked at each other eyes, and the colt just mouthed the word “I knew you could do it” to his lover.

It was then that somepony told them about the Sonic Butterfly, and nopony who knew Fluttershy, herself included, could believe it. She had become the second fastest pony of all time, even if slipstream and gravity assisted, despite being the only pegasi ever to fail basic flight camp.

As the filly was trying to process this, an orange Pegasus jumped onto the tired hero “Mother, you saved me” and the pair had a massive mother/daughter hug. They had bonded from the start of the adoption, but having now gone through something like this, both knew the bond would now be unbreakable.

The Cloudsdale mayor had arrived, and asked the pegasi to carry their guests to the main part of town. A pair of royal guards took each of the earth and unicorn ponies over, whilst Rainbow and Fluttershy were lifted up and carried by a group of ponies, who started cheering the heros. “Rainbow Dash, he’s out colt, he flies faster than a lightning bolt", allowing the colt to soak up the attention he loved, whilst others were cheering out “Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can really fly” causing the more bashful filly to hide behind her mane.

***

Arriving in the main square, as soon as they were all put down Scootaloo was mobbed by her classmates, even Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, thanking the filly for her family saving them. This was too much for the young pegasus to take in, and she went over and just held onto her father. Rainbow scooped the filly onto her back, using his wings to help hide his daughter from the overwhelming crowds.

Having been challenged by the pumped up colt what happened to cause the accident, a science pony had worked out that the cloud had suffered from TCC, or Total Cloud Collapse. It is such a rare event that it’s only happened twice in the past three hundred years, and obviously wasn't normally an issue for the city as the residents could fly.

Just then a bright flash appeared above them all, and looking up they saw the two Princesses appear above them, gliding gently down to the ground. Everypony bowed down to them, except for Rainbow and Fluttershy who having met the Princesses enough times by now had forgotten about royal protocol. Besides, they suspected the princesses were here for them and were so tired that if they bowed they wouldn't be able to get up.

“Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, what brings your esteemed presence to Clousdale” the mayor broke the silence.

“Dear Mayor Maire, we are hear for the two heros” Luna replied, her older sister allowing the younger to take the lead when dealing with ponies, in order to ingratiate herself more with the modern ponies. This lead to a massive cheer for the two heros, and the two Princess, from their gathered subjects.

“Come Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, we need to speak to you. Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie, you are welcome to join us” Celestia added

As soon as they entered a private room, the Princesses sealed the door. Luna trotted over to Fluttershy and gave her a big hug, much to the yellow fillys shock “Oh dear friend Fluttershy, one cannot believe that you have performed such a feat today”

“I knew she could do it” Rainbow boasted.

“Us too” the three fillies joined in.

Celestia smiled at the colt and the trio of crusaders “Yes, you did didn’t you. And if you asked me I would have agreed with you.” Celestia than turned to the filly, who was already blushing from Luna’s hug “But I’m not sure that before now Fluttershy would have agreed with you."

Fluttershy could only stammer a whisper in response, all the events of the day being added to her natural instinct to shy away from the Princess.

“Fluttershy, I felt you should be the first to see and hold this” Celestia’s horn started to glow, and suddenly a sphere appeared infront of fluttershy, landing softly in the cloud infront of her. She picked it up with her hooves and looked at it gingerly.

Celestia smiled at the cowering filly “Fluttershy, you just had to believe in yourself. You have reached a speed that only one other Pegasus in the whole of history has ever reached” and she turned and winked to Rainbow Dash “It doesn’t matter if you had help, it doesn’t matter if it was a one off, the important thing is you had the belief in yourself to save you’re daughter. Out of all the elements, you have struggled to believe in youself, since an early age. But your actions today has led to the finding of the orb of belief"

***

After an afternoon to recover, the schoolfoals and Cheerlee were back in the two balloons, this time joined by Fluttershy who still needed to rest and heal. Rainbow attached the first balloons lead rope to his body, and started attaching the second. Probably pulling two balloons wasn’t the best idea after the rescue, but he wasn't prepared to entrust anypony else with his precious cargo.

Suddenly the ropes were magically realised from around his body, and he looked over to see Celestia and Luna's auras around the ropes. Celestia soared over and hovered next to him “Brave Rainbow Dash, you shouldn't overdo it by pulling these Balloons back to the ground. Let somepony else do it”

“Princess Celestia, you are of course right” the colt bowed, as despite not necessarily agreeing, he wasn’t going to argue with the Princesses. He flew over to the same basket as fluttershy, whilst one of the foals went to the other basket to even up the weight.

After getting in, Rainbow looked back and noted that the Princeses were attaching the ropes to themselves. “Wait, I thought you meant some of the Clousdale Royal guards or something” he yelled out as he dashed back over to the Princesses.

“Do you think you and Fluttershy are not worthy of our respect?” Celestia asked

“No! Well, maybe my Fluttershy yes, but not me!” Rainbow replied

“You mean you are too good for a Royal Escort, and we are not worthy of carrying the wondrous Rainbow Dash?” Luna smirked back

“But…But But But…But that’s why you have guards, I can’t allow you to carry me!”

“Did you hear that dear sister, Princess of the Day, King Rainbow Dash doesn’t allow us!” Luna laughed

“Oh dear, that will never do will it Princess of the Night?” Celestia joined in the trolling.

Rainbow blushed deeply, realising he was going to start an unwinnable argument and bowed again “Princess Luna, Princess Celestia…I apologise. I shall take the honour as you intended it” and he flew back to the balloon where he was comforted by Fluttershy, who couldn’t help but laugh at her brave and bold colt who always found a fight. He would probably be the only pony to be able to fight his way into a paper bag...or cardboard box.

The Princesses took up the slack and lifted the balloons up off the cloud and started pulling them towards Ponyville. The foals and Cheerliee enjoyed the honour of being led by the Royal Alicorns, having not met them before. Fluttershy and Rainbow just sat at the back to allow the foals the better view, and just held each other and nuzzled, letting it finally sinking in what happened that day – they had saved the foals, become heros again, and more importantly had bonded closer as a family then had ever been thought possible.

And to seal the deal Rainbow and Fluttershy agreed to wed, swapping a feather each as was the pegasus tradition...