Balance within Harmony

It seemed like such a good idea to the baby dragon at the time – taking the Cutie Mark Crusaders to Canterlot to spend time at the palace. This would allow him to have some quality time with both his new friends, and the Princesses, who were more than agreeable to the idea. Princess Luna wanted to spend more time round the young ponies as this was very useful in getting used to some of the changes in modern society. And Celestia always enjoyed time round anypony if it gave her an excuse to indulge herself in treats and cake.

Spike reminded himself to ensure he learnt the lesson – such a good idea at the time. It had all started as soon as they boarded the train and the sisters were out of sight. What had started as a simple disagreement on where to sit had eventually erupted into a full blown argument between the three best friends. Had it not been the fact that they were on a train and surrounded by strangers, Spike was sure they would have come to blows before now…and only Applebloom was going to win that one.

Luckily Spike was used to the three young fillies so knew it would eventually blow over. Usually when one of them had a hair brained idea on how to try to get their cutie marks.

“Hey girls” Spike tried to calm the situation “I don’t think this is the way to go about things!”

“Well you’re just a chicken…” Applebloom was shouting at one of her friends “Spike, what are you going on about?”

“How to get your cutie marks of course” the dragon replied as innocently as possible.

“Well, if dictionary here didn’t keep falling off it would have worked…What do you mean our cutie marks?" Scootaloo responded between insults.

“Why did I think I asked you to the palace, if not to perhaps find your cutie marks?”

The three of them stopped still and went completely silent, which Spike knew meant that they were very interested in what he was saying.

“What kind of cutie marks?” Sweetie Belle asked

“Who knows, but there are lots of high society ponies with all sorts of cutie marks from showing decorum, involving fancy clothing etc. Just look at Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. Perhaps impressing the Princesses will help you find your marks?”

The three fillies looked at each other “CUTIE MARK CRUSCADERS SOCIETY PONIES, YAY!”

Spike coughed, and apologised to the rest of the carriage for any burst eardrums on behalf of the three ponies now busy discussing how they were going to behave. Sweetie Belle had been taught loads of this by her sister, and now regretted not paying more attention.

***

Upon arrival in Canterlot, Spike departed the train first, followed by three fillies that nopony from Ponyville would have recognised. Rather than bundling out of the train in a blur of hooves and manes, he was followed by three smartly dressed fillies giving way to each other and everypony else. Rarity had designed outfits for their visit without them knowing, and much to the girls delight each had an outfit which combined elements of both their sisters/brother and their fiancés dresses from the gala.

Despite being excited at being back in Canterlot, having only visited a few times, they decided to try to keep calm and crusade on. Being calm, controlled and impressing everypony was perhaps the path to what they really seeked. Afterall, this was about the only thing they had yet to try and so logically this must be the solution. And it seemed to be working, as everypony was smiling and being courteous to them, rather than frowning or laughing as usual.

The four youngsters, with Spike carrying the entire luggage, made their way through the crowds toward the castle. Spike had been offered a royal escort to the castle, but had rejected it hoping to keep a bit of a low profile so the fillies wouldn’t be overawed. He did notice a couple of guards seemed to be following them, and made a mental note to tell the Princesses off when he arrived. Afterall, he may be a baby dragon, but he and the crusaders had proven themselves more than capable of protecting themselves.

As they approached Canterlot castle, the group was greeted by a fancy looking pony trotting over to them “Why hello Spike, long time no see!”

“Hello Fancy Pants” Spike put down the luggage and shock Fancy Pants hoof with his claw “It had been too long. Let me introduce you to my friends. This here is Applebloom” leading to Applebloom to curtsey to the pony, “Scootaloo” who gave the pony a nervous wave, "and Sweetie Belle” causing the filly just to squeak and put out a hoof.

Fancy pants gently took the fillies hoof and kissed it in a very old fashioned way, causing the filly to blush “Ahh, young Ms Bell, sister of Ms Rarity Belle I presume?”

“You know my sister, sir?” Sweetie beamed back a smile

“Of course, she is one of the raising stars of the fashion world. And I can see she has outdone herself again with these three lovely outfits”

At this point all three fillies were blushing, and Spike was struggling to hold back a giggle on how, well, girlie they were being. Wow, getting these Cutie Marks really does mean the world to them

After Spike and Fancy Pants exchanged a few more pleasantries, and arranged to meet up properly on the dragons’ next trip to Canterlot, they continued on there way towards the Castle. The girls had slowly started to regain their composure, and were delighted on how there first interaction of the trip had gone.

“If we keep this up, we’re bound to leave here with our Cutie Marks” Applebloom cheered

***

The four guests were waiting patiently in one of the many rooms of Canterlot castle for Celestia to finish the day's business. It was still too early for Luna to rise, although she would be waking up earlier than normal for the next few days to ensure she could enjoy the girls visit.

The room was filled with all sorts of ponies, and although they had all been told that Celestia was finishing day court early, they had waited around just in case they had a chance to see the Princess. The room was very fancy, with all sorts of fragile and valuable decorations and even had a pony playing a piano in the corner.

This was a little boring for Spikes tastes, and he couldn’t imagine how bored the Cruscaders were. Still, they had been behaving themselves up to now, and not a single priceless treasure had been broken and Sweetie Belle hadn’t started singing. Suddenly, Scootaoo got up and walked over to a family waiting who had a unicorn filly, perhaps a year younger than the CMC’s, with them.

“Hello there, my name is Scootaoo, may I ask you your name?” the Pegasus asked politely.

The young filly looked at her parents who nodded “Hello, my name is Azure Aurora” she timidly responded

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Azure. If your parents don’t mind, would you like to come and talk to me and my friends for a while?”

The filly looked at her parents again, who nodded with a smile on their faces. Azure and Scootaoo returned to the other two crusaders, who all introduced themselves and the four fillies started chatting away in a very restrained volume.

Spike listened in as Azure explained that yesterday she received her Cuite Mark, greeted with congratulations from the three blank flanks. She then went on to explain that it was a family tradition to see the Princess the day afterwards, for a blessing. Of course not every family member saw the Princess, but it was a tradition none the less.

After a while, an official announcement was made that no more visitors would be seen today, due to personal guests of the Princesses. Azure’s parents came over and told the filly that they had to go, but not to worry as neither of them had got to see the Princesses either, or had in fact ever met her in person “She’s a very important pony afterall” the mother comforted her daughter.

Azure looked sad, and suddenly the three fillies felt a bit guilty that the session had been cut short for their visit. Afterall, they considered themselves just three silly blankflanks and yet they had met the Princesses many times already.

“Wait here” Scootaoo suddenly blurted and started trotted over to the door. After what was a very civilised argument between the guard and the brash filly, Scootaoo pushed him over and walked camly through the door into the main room. Afterall, she was the guest so as far as she was concerned she was going in. But, at a gait befitting a lady of course!

After a short while, a young head popped round the door and motioned to the six of them to come. Spike and her two friends went straight over whilst the three strangers followed with a degree of trepidation. The room they entered was one of the halls Celestia or Luna met most ponies – it wasn’t as grand as the main hall, but it was still an impressive room. Stained Glass windows lined one of the sides, and a smile lit up on Appleblooms face as she noticed that her sister and her friends were on one of them.

Down at the far end of the room, Celestia sat on her throne, flanked by two guards. Spike went running up to the Princess, who greeted him with a hug with her wings

“Why hello Spike, I have missed you” Celestia cooed to her baby dragon friend

“Good afternoon Princess, I’ve missed being up here in Canterlot, it’s been far too long since we met outside of a disaster”

“Indeed it has been, I’m looking forwards to catching up with you, but first lets just finish up with some business." The Princess got up and walked over to the three filly visitors with three other visitors behind them, and addressed the familiar pegasus “Scootaoo, who is this that you wanted me to see?”

The three first time visitors just stared in disbelief at the Princess addressing them, before Scootaoo nudged Azure to snap her back to reality “Ahhh, Hello Princess Celestia. My..my name is Azure Aurora and these are my parents” the filly responded with some squeaks.

“I believe you have come here today to see me?” Celestia gently replied

“Oh, yes Princess!”

The princess smiled. She either had to coax every word out of some of her visitors, whilst others wouldn’t shut up. The former were always more worthy of her time, so she softened herself a little more and continued

“And why did you want to see me today, Azure?”

Azure then went on to explain the tradition regarding her families cutie marks, and how so got hers yesterday. Celestia asked to see it, and the princess and the foal discussed it for a brief moment. It was a familiar situation to the long ruling princess, but to the youngster it was a moment in time that will never exist again!

Celestia than turned to her parents. “Mr and Mrs Aurora. I am sorry that I missed the chance to see you when you were young. I hope you weren’t too disappointed. However, I don’t think it made any difference to you as you have obviously been excellent ponies to raise such a wonderful daughter”

The parents just sort of mumbled a response, too overcome at being honoured by the princess to properly respond. Celestia sat back down on her throne, as a sign that the visit was over.

The three members of the Aurora family started walking out of the hall, the young pony braking down in tears of happiness as she left, joined in with her mother and everypony expected her father was feeling the same. The crusaders felt so glad to help out somepony else that they didn’t even bother checking if they had earned their cutie marks. Of course they hadn’t, but they had impressed the Princess and Spike on just how grown up they had become.

***

The rest of the first day of the trip continued in a very civilised manner. It was a warm, dry day and so the group went outside to enjoy one of the castles many gardens. Celestia regaled the three fillies with some of the stories from her reign, and although Spike had heard them all before as Celestia was such a good story teller he was just as enthralled.

As afternoon passed into early evening, the group retired inside before the temperature dropped. Luna woke up early and the six of them played some games. The two princesses hadn’t had much of the way of downtime together for a thousand years – Celestia had been ruling the country alone for a long time, and Luna spending a lot of time catching up since the Nightmare Moon incident. Celestia was a little disappointed that her favourite unicorn wasn’t there with them, but then Twilight always won the games so it made it more fun not knowing who would win.

Rather than having a big formal meal, the group decided to carry on playing games over sandwiches. The Crusaders didn’t really notice that the chance of acting as society ponies was missed; they were having too much fun to really worry about such things.

At the appropriate time, Celestia excused herself and went over to the window. Her horn glowed and slowly the sun was set. Not many ponies ever saw the sun being set, and whilst it wasn’t spectacular in the same way as her sunrise, the four ponies and the dragon gasped as the various colours of the setting sun flooded over Celestia’s royal frame, painting her white fur in beautiful shades.

A little while later Luna then raised the moons and the stars, to the equal amazement of the four visitors. Celestia always joined her sister as she painted the evening sky, but was glad to see Luna had a big smile on her face hearing the gasps and squeals of delight from their four guests Perhaps if Luna was a bit more public when raising her night, she would realise just how much our subjects enjoy it, despite needing to sleep Celestia thought to herself.

The six of them carried on talking and playing games until the three young fillies were struggling to stifle their yawns. Celestia told her young guests it was time to sleep, and that the fun could continue tomorrow. The four Ponyville residents bid the day ruler goodnight, whilst Luna decided to escort their guests in order to spend a little more time with them.

The group of five made their way to Sparkle Tower, as it was currently known. Twilight had told Spike to use their old castle residence to stay in, as it had the best view of any of the guest quarters, being the third highest tower behind each of the rulers. The three fillies were too tired to misbehave during their evening rituals – they undressed carefully in order to protect their clothes, brushed their teeth and each others manes, and quietly went to bed.

With the three fillies safely asleep, Spike and Luna spent some time stargazing. Spike was brought up looking at the stars, and the night Princess took great delight as Spike pointed out every beautiful change that had made since Celestia’s time with the stars. Celestia hadn’t the artistic skills of her younger sister, and Spike knew Luna loved to hear anypony, or dragon, notice the details she added.

***

The next morning the three fillies woke up early, and soon woke up Spike with their excited exploring of the tower. Of course there weren’t too many fun things in Twilights old residence, just lots of books about magic and history. They did find a hidden stash of books which the fillies presumed were just “biology” texts, although seemed to have a lot of pictures of stallions in them. Of course if the girls were a little older, they would have realised what they have found, but that is the beauty of innocence.

Spike soon got the girls to start getting ready for breakfast – it was to be a royal breakfast with a large number of guests. The girls got themselves ready and dressed in their lovely outfits, whilst Spike put on the bow-tie Rarity had given him. Exactly on time, the guests left and made their way to the banquet hall.

Thanks to Spike’s intimate knowledge of the castle, they used some back routes and arrived early. They were directed to the top table, where the Princesses had yet to arrive. They had some tea poured for them whilst the food was being prepared, and other ponies started to arrive. When the majority of the guests had arrived, there was a trumpet blast and everypony stood up.

The two Princesses entered and all the gathered guests bowed or curtsied, except for Spike who was impressed that his three charges had remembered to do so. After a brief speech, Celestia raised the morning sun and the waiters brought in the small breakfast.

The guests all chatted, and the whole event went off without any disruptions. The three fillies blended in excellently with the other ponies, whilst Spike was always treated a little different if not solely because his was a dragon but also ate a specially aged gem probably worth more than any of the jewels in the room.

***

After a days organised exploration of Canterlot’s best snack emporiums, dotted with the occasional museum and art gallery visit, Spike and the girls had returned to the castle. Upon arrival, the second in command of the guard came trotting over and gave them a salute. The three fillies were so in awe at the stature of this unicorn that they instinctively saluted back.

Spike had to laugh at the three fancy dressed fillies saluting the guard, and even he almost broke into a smile. “Spike, the Princesses gave me a letter to give to you upon your return” The guard announced, trying to hold back a smirk, as he levitated over a Scroll. “Shining Amour would have liked to have been here himself but he is currently dealing with a personal matter”

Spike took the scroll in his claws, thanked the guard, and started reading the scroll out loud.

Dearest Applebloom, Scootaloo, Spike and Sweetie Belle

Unfortunately an urgent matter has arisen in Manehattan, and both of us are required immediately. We therefore have to sadly cancel this evenings plans.

We have arranged for four tickets to a new musical opening tonight, and we would be honoured if you could attend as the royal representation. This is an important task we ask of you, but should you not feel like it please arrange for some other ponies to attend in your place.

We deeply apologise, but I hope you understand.

Fondest regards, Celestia and Luna

When Spike finished reading, he was ready to comfort what was suspected were bound to be three sad fillies, but to his surprise they didn’t have sad faces. The three fillies just turned to each other, and, for the first time ever they didn’t shout but calmly spoke “Cutie Mark Crusaders’ Royal Musical Critics!” with Scootaloo adding a “Most excellent” to the end.

***

Three spa ponies had come up to the tower, and had specially made up the three fillies manes with gems and ribbon. Scootaloo had a fairly plain manedo as she took after Rainbow in not liking the fru-fru stuff. Sweetie Belle had the most awesome manedo ever, channelling her sister’s designs to her stylist, whilst Applebloom probably had a good mix of fancy without being over the top.

A carriage took the four guests from the base of the tower through the castle grounds and the streets of Canterlot. The fillies looked out as everypony paid attention to the royal carriage, and despite having been involved in saving the whole kingdom they never felt so special as that night “This is going to be the best night ever!” the fillies giggled.

Upon arrival at the theatre, the four were shown up to the royal box, where a number of drinks and snacks were waiting for them. Two royal guards stood at the entrance of the box, making them feel like VIP’s (Very Important Ponies). They had a look around the very fancy auditorium, noticing that lots of ponies were looking at the guests in the royal box. They remembered that they were there on official, well semi-official, business and so started waving regally to the ponies.

The lights dimmed and the show started, and luckily for the four youngsters, it was a family musical and they enjoyed the first half very much. When the break arrived, the four of them decided to get up and stretch their legs. As they exited the box, the two guards followed them and the group grabbed some snacks and drinks and returned to their seats.

The second half of the musical was even better than the first, and all too quickly it was over. After a very long standing ovation, the group left the royal box and started mingling in the lobby.

“Wasn’t that the best play ever…except for our sisters and brothers doing the hearth warming play of course!” Applebloom declared

“Totally. Much better than our talent show song!” Scootaloo laughed

“Agreed” Applebloom laughed back, noticing Sweetie being rather quiet “What did you think Sweetie Belle?”

Sweetie Belle turned to Applebloom with a massive smile on her face, and just started singing one of the main songs from the play. Being in a public place she used her best singing voice rather then the full volume awesome voice used when camping or at school talent shows. All the surrounding ponies stopped talking, and a group started forming round the filly.

Hearing the brilliant singing, a gray earth mare with a bow tie grabbed her cello and started playing the tune for the song. Hearing this, the unicorn filly suddenly realised the rather large crowd that had gathered round her, and she stopped singing, putting her hooves over her mouth

The cellist stopped playing, and looked at the unicorn. She then started playing from a few bars before the filly had stopped becoking her to continue. Sweetie would normally shy away from the attention her singing drew, but given how much attention they had already received on this trip, she picked up the tune and carried on with her song.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked on in amazement as over hundred ponies were intently listening to their friend singing. They knew Sweetie had an awesome voice, but the filly finally having the confidence to sing properly they realised just how good she was.

As soon as she reached the crescendo of the song, everypony round her started clapping on the ground in appreciation of the song. Sweetie started blushing feeling her checks grow very warm. But it felt good to have these ponies appreciating her singing, and the applause and attention felt infectious. She then felt an unusual twinge in her body, and peering under her dress she noticed something different.

“I’ve got my cutie mark!” Sweetie gasped.

Even for the Canterlot elite, the finding of a cutie mark for anypony was something to be celebrated, and a big cheer went up from the crowd. Her two crusader friends came over and gave her the biggest hug ever. Spike stood there quietly, proud at his part in the whole thing and Sweetie suddenly broke from her friends and pounced on the dragon in a massive body hug.

“Thank you Spike” the filly sobbed “If it wasn’t for you I don’t know when I would have found my cutie mark”

"Yeah, Spike is the best Cutie Mark Crusader!" Applebloom cheered.

***

The next day it was time to return to Ponyville. Unfortunately the Princesses had yet to return so Sweetie couldn’t show off her cutie mark to them. Spike had offered to write to them, but the fill decided not to take up the offer until she had shown her family.

The four travellers were travelling weary through the streets, as they had not slept much the previous night. For the remainder of the evening, and throughout the night, the three fillies had all been discussing Sweeties new cuite mark and trying to decide what would be required to get the remaining two. Spike had now regretted declining the offer of a carriage ride, but he wanted to get the girls back to normality.

They eventually got to the train station and had about an hour to wait before the next train to Ponyville. There was a small gift shop just outside the station, full of the usual tourists browsing merchandise. Spike took the girls in and they started browsing around.

Spike pulled out one of the gems he had saved, and checked with the salespony if he would accept it. Fortunately the price of gems in Canterlot was slightly higher than in Ponyville, thanks to the lack of local unicorns with gem finding spells, and the small gem was enough for a few gifts each. “Okay girls, you can each pick out a few mementos to remember this trip by” he explained to the fillies, who then started looking around.

Applebloom found a small replica of the canterlot castle stained glass window of the bearers of the elements of harmony and knew that all their families would love it. Scootaloo found a wonderful book containing paintings of the animals of canterlot palace gardens she knew her mother would adore. Sweetie Belle found a book regarding this years Canterlot fashion week for her sister. They had also picked up three snowglobes of canterlot castle which were very detailed in that it even had the tower where they had stayed.

They took the six items up to the cashier and the pony looked over the gifts “Sorry Spike, but the gems not worth all of this”

Sweetie went up to the salespony “What about if we only have two snowglobes?”

“It’s a deal!” the pony agreed, quickly taking the gem from Spikes claw. Sweetie put back her snowglobe, and the four of them left with their gifts.

As they walked back towards the platform, Applebloom turned to the unicorn “Sweetie Belle, I feel bad, you’ll have nothing to remember this trip by!”

Sweetie looked down at the music symbols her flank “You’re wrong, I’ll have something to remember this trip for the rest of my life!” she smiled “Besides, I can always come and see yours, CMCBFFs!”

***

As the train pulled into Ponyville, the four travelers woke up a little refreshed from the train nap. Sweetie Belle asked her friends to quickly put on their dresses, so she could hide her cutie mark until she was ready to show it off. The four friends disembarked the train, with the three fillies carrying their gifts in their mouths, whilst Spike struggled getting all the luggage off. However, as soon as Twilight saw the struggling dragon, he levitated all the packages off of him and gave his son/brother a big hug.

The Crusaders gave their families their gifts right away, if anything so they didn't have to carry them themselves. All the ponies loved their gifts, especially Fluttershy for her book after missing out on spending time with the animals at the gala. Scootaloo and Applebloom also showed off the snowglobes they got themselves, whilst Rarity promised Spike to repay him for the gem he had spent.

"And what about you Sweetie Belle" Fluttershy asked "Didn't you buy anything for yourself?"

"No, we didn't have enough gem for six items"

"Oh, how sad" Rarity cooed "And you chose to get gifts for everypony else but yourself. Why, how generous and grown up!"

"It doesn't matter" Sweetie replied "I got to bring something else back with me". She looked over to her three friends, who like her were struggling to contain themselves.

"Oh, what was it?" her sister asked

"Guess" Sweetie responded "But you'll never get it, none of you will!" the little filly beamed. Twilight had a big grin on his face. "And you can't help them...you're too smart I bet you've already worked out why" Sweetie pointed to the colt

"Guilty as charged!" Twilight laughed giving the filly a hoof-bump.

"So...is it because you had a lovely time" Applejack asked

"No, but it was a lovely trip!" Applebloom responded

The ten friends made there way back into town, five of the adults trying to guess what Sweetie had, ranging from a feather from a princess, a famous ponies autograph and loads of other things. As they reached the certain of town, Sweetie noticed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon sitting on a bench, and stopped within earshot of them.

"Nope, it was none of them" Sweetie asked, speaking loudly so "It wasn't spending time with the Princesses, it wasn't helping a little filly have the moment of a lifetime at the castle..." Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon ears pricked up at this Canterlot talk "...it was this!" She lifted her dress to show off her cutie mark, causing his sister to squee with excitement, Twilight to set off some magical fireworks (for he had guessed correctly) and the four other ponies to join in the three other youngsters in cheering, along with a few other townsponies who just joined in, like for the random pinkie pie led flashmobs.

She then went on to explain how she got it in front of all the society ponies when representing Royalty at an exclusive Canterlot event, causing her sister to squee some more. This was the second happiest moment of Sweeties young life, showing the sister she looked up to so much her cutie mark - the fact she got to rub the two stuck up foals from her class that she had an awesome story to go along with her calling, found beside some of the best friends in the world, made it even better!