Once upon a time in a beautiful land home to ponies, there was a grand city and within the grandest parts of the royal city, lived the rare and noble ponies known as alicorns.

All alicorns were of noble blood and blessed with powerful magic and unique abilities, however it was the royal line that that held the greatest of all.

But power was not everything, the alicorns were also very well read and the little filly who would be the next queen was always eager to prove that was true for her too as she trotted through the library like she did almost daily.

Her name was Princess Harmony, a tiny little filly with a coat of bright lavender pink and hair of many colours.

Like many little foals, she was eager to learn new things, but unlike many little foals, she loved studying even when it wasn’t study time.

This was not to say she didn’t like playing with her toys and with the other little fillies, no she was just very eager to prove she was super smart like her father and could understand magic quickly like any self respecting alicorn could, especially direct royalty.

And though she, like all alicorns also possessed magic at an early age, it seemed not quite enough as the magic she used to levitated a heavy book off the shelf fizzled and the book fell to the floor with a loud thump.

The thump was loud enough to bring one of the fiery guards accompanying the little foal quickly to her side.

“Princess! Are you alright?” Exclaimed the guard, and for a pony with no pupils, there was quite a lot of expression in those eyes as well as his glowing mane. Harmony often wondered how fiery ponies could keep their bright, fire like manes cool when she had seen them get hot especially when they lost their tempers.

“Yep! But I’d like ta read this book now mister guard!” The little princess chirped “I found the one I want but it’s really, really heavy!”

The guard looked at the book and then to Princess Harmony “A Complete Guide to The Sky and the known solar system beyond? Forgive me my princess, but isn’t that a little complicated for somepony your age? ”

Harmony pouted “Nope! I gotta read this book! Mother and Father have been saying the sky’s been doing weird stuff especially when they see the stars, so I wanna help them since they’ve been so busy checking it lately”

It was true, the sky had been acting very strangely, some days the sun held no light even when it was clearly there and it was only because of the stars, the light of both the fiery ponies and the castle as well as magic from the alicorns that the city did not plunge in total darkness on those days.

And yet the sun still lit up some areas, as if nothing was happening at all. What was puzzling everypony was that it only got dark in the royal city and some nearby towns, and sometimes there were reports of horrible things happening in those towns and even places where the sun only lost it’s light for just a few moments.

However Harmony wasn’t told of what exactly was happening. No they said it was too scary to tell a little filly much to her irritation.

Because of these strange events, the King and Queen were very busy as they investigated it all, and of course this was causing them to spend less and less time with their daughter Harmony until there were days when the young princess didn’t see them at all.

It was because of this that Princess Harmony hoped the fiery guard understood why she was so eager herself to look up how the sky worked, even if it was a little more difficult than what she usually studied.

The fiery sighed as he took the book to a nearby table “Well ask for help then if you want a book like this moved somewhere, you are still very small Princess, and dropping something like this on your hooves could really hurt.” He never took his eyes of Princess Harmony as she followed him and pulled out a chair “Do not attempt to take a large book out again, get the librarian or one of the guards like me.”

Harmony pouted once again “I always keep big things a distance from me in case that happens, and I knew I would never be able to levitate a book this big. I was just pulling it out.” She took a seat somewhat struggling to get her tiny wings to lift her onto the chair.

“Peach Blossom already knows I know better than to lift more than I can.” She sighed in irritation missing the much less stern nature of her favourite flutter pony nursemaid “When is she going to look after me again?”

The fiery sighed again “Lady Peach Blossom can not look after you until the events in the sky and the darkened areas are resolved. Until then, the King and queen have requested you to be watched by guards.” Harmony could tell at this point the fiery guard was tiring of her, so she just nodded. Yet another reason she wanted Peach Blossom back.

Perhaps she would ask her mother and father to consider letting Peach Blossom watch her as well as the guards or something like that.

As Harmony opened the book with her magic the fiery gave her another glance and then resumed to his post near the window.

There were guards stationed at every possible entrance and others watching a crystal ball that showed where Harmony was when she wasn’t in her room… this was getting so over the top, she wasn’t even allowed to frolic in the gardens or play with the other foals anymore.

As Harmony stared longingly out the window she decided she was definitely going to talk to her mother and father when she saw them next.

The only problem was with all the commotion about the sky, when WAS she going to see them next?

Harmony was getting so tired and frustrated of all this that she almost tore a page of the book with her magic.

No she needed to study. At least that was still normal.

And all the better if it could help her parents.

After being told it was closing time for the library and for little princesses to go to bed, a sleepy eyed Princess Harmony was escorted to her room by yet another fiery guard who was carrying her heavy book in a rather large saddle bag.

Though she was tiring of the guards constantly looking after her, she admitted it was convenient to have ponies who could easily carry heavy things and have the glow of the fiery guard’s flames lighting the way.

And it was pretty. A pretty glow was so relaxing for a sleepy princess.

Harmony was so tired she barely heard the guard say something and didn’t even notice him stop until she bumped into him.

Was she ever happy that a fiery pony’s flames where only hot when they wanted them to be.

Harmony looked up to see why the guard had stopped. Certainly they weren’t at her room yet.
“Oh Harmony dearie are you alright?” Came a voice the princess hadn’t heard in a while. Harmony suddenly felt more awake “Mother!” Harmony squealed as she trotted over to the elegant white queen

“I didn’t know you were still up dear” The queen smiled as she nuzzled her daughter. She then looked to the fiery. “Take my daughter to her room… with that big book she probably picked out and then gather the other guards. I need to discuss some findings of my husband and I”

Harmony frowned “But Mother, I wanna talk with you!” The queen shook her head “I’m sorry dear, but Mother’s very busy and it is way past your bed time” Harmony knew what the next four words were going to be “Tomorrow we can talk”

That was ALWAYS what her mother and father said to her whenever she had the chance of seeing them lately, and that was what Harmony was tiring of most of all.

Harmony felt like something broke inside as all her frustrations seemed to just spill over.

Desperate to be able to finally have some time with just one parent, she hugged he mother’s front leg, and started to cry “No! I wanna help! I wanna have Peach Blossom look after me again! I wanna play outside with the other foals and most of all I want my mother and father back!”

The queen tried to comfort her young daughter as she stroked her hair “I’m sorry dear, but things are very complicated right now” She lifted her daughter’s chin so she could look into her eyes. “and you are far too young to get mixed up in this.”

She sighed sadly as Harmony just held tighter onto her leg. “No, no, NO! Please mother! I’ve been studying so hard to help you and father! Please!” Harmony’s mother frowned, longing to spend more time with her daughter and soothe her like any mother would for their distressed foal. She hesitated for a while before pushing her daughter away. “You’re a princess Harmony, you need to understand these things and know you can’t always get what you want”

The queen motioned the guard to get Harmony “Please take her to bed, she’s very tired” The guard nodded “Right away my Queen” the guard replied as he gently pulled the sobbing princess away from her mother.

Harmony couldn’t keep the tears from leaking out her eyes as she watched her mother walk away as the guard took her to her room.

Why was all this happening?

Author's Note

Harmony’s very young here, but she will age as the story progresses. Right now she’s about 5-ish so she is still quite childish, but as a princess she is also quite formal. As you can guess she is the ancestor of Celestia’s and Luna’s nieces and nephews and unlike Celestia and Luna, she is as mortal as any pony

And about fiery ponies. They are based off of ‘fiery steeds’ of many myths like Helios’ horses and so on.
My variation have bright manes with a slight glow they can make glow brighter and turn into a magic fire the same colour of their manes, much like how a unicorn can turn on and off their magic.
They also have abilities I will explain in later chapters