Keenest Sense Of Duty: Sc.01&02


                                            >”If you’re that eager to help your subjects, Flurry, then what is the problem? We’re heir-apparents for rulers who will likely never quit. You have all the time in the world.”

                                            >You and Twilight Sparkle are walking the halls of the Crystal Palace alone, except for the occasional guard you pass.

                                            >Idle conversation, the kind that only occurs between two people moving between two places.

                                            >It is good, then, that your aunt knows how to navigate the most aimless of corridors, and how to take the longest path to get to any given location within the great tower’s labyrinthine layout.

                                            “All mom and dad give me are books. Books of grand ideas and important philosophy, but just books. Mom’s always talking about love and compassion, dad always speaks on duty and grace, but in the end they stick my nose in books or my flank in court and expect me to know what’s going on.”

                                            >Twilight looks at you, surprised. “My BROTHER makes you read?”

                                            “I think he got the idea from you.”

                                            >Twilight laughs at your growling tone. “I’m sorry for that, then. I’d rather have rubbed off on him sooner or not at all.”

                                            “If you want to teach me something, you can teach me how to love reading.”

                                            >She looks at you again, from eye level - one of the few ponies who could now that you’ve gotten a little taller, a little more slender than other ponies your age, an adult but not yet grown – and you can see she’s holding back another laugh. “I astonish myself even realizing I’m about to say this, but I can do better.”

                                            >Your turn to look surprised.

                                            “What could YOU possibly think is better than that?”

                                            >She turns a corner with you, down another hall that you know goes seemingly nowhere but another hall just as pointless. Whoever first built, or maybe grew, the Crystal Palace may have been mad. ”I’ve discovered in the end, as much as you can learn from books, there’s no substitute for going out and experiencing things yourself.”

                                            “I don’t want to spend all my time around the nobility. I’m not- I’m not like them. Neither is mom or dad, and that’s not a bad thing, but I think it might be easier to understand ponies more like me.”

                                            >”Flurry, we’re immortal avatars of the invisible forces of life on our world. Every ‘pony like us’ is presently within this very palace until tomorrow evening.”

                                            >You give her a flat glance.

                                            >”Ah, well, even if we don’t know which force you’re supposed to be yet. Still, why not the nobles? Too stuffy?”

                                            “No, it’s not that, it’s…”

                                            >You trail off, eyeing the guard you’re approaching. Light shines off the hexagonal facets of one of his eyes, but that’s not what gave away his otherwise very faint presence, as translucent as guards make themselves. Out of sight means out of mind, they’ve told you.

                                            >You can feel his emotions plainly, an ability you suspect you got from your mother, or perhaps the Crystal Heart, displayed so prominently on your hindquarters.

                                            >You remain silent as you pass, and for his part, he does not seem to have noticed anything untoward about your silence.

                                            >You exhale a breath you didn’t realize you were holding until you had some distance from the guard.

                                            “Crystal ponies are… easy. They’re true to their emotions to a fault. I know how they’ll act as soon as I look at one.”

                                            >After a beat, you hurry to add

                                            “Not that I’d give my ability up! I just feel like in such a limited setting like the court, with such a limited group of people like the nobility, there’s not much to learn besides what’s obvious to me.”

                                            >Twilight shook her head. “When I said ‘going out’, I meant it. I didn’t learn my most important lessons until I moved to Ponyville. Things court life and academic studies would never have taught me. Go out, to where the people you want to learn from are.”

                                            >You stopped walking, staring at her in disbelief, and Twilight halts a little further on.

                                            “Are you telling me to run away from home?”

                                            >“What? No, I can’t say that.”

                                            >After another moment, you catch up to her, and the two of you resume your aimless trek.

                                            “I’ll be recognized anywhere in the Empire.”

                                            >”Then go outside it.”

                                            “They’ll never let me leave.”

                                            >”Your parents?”

                                            “Yeah. Dad gets antsy when I talk about leaving the city, let alone our borders.”

                                            >”I can’t tell you to disobey your parents, Flurry. But I can say that among the people are some opportunities you’ll never get anywhere else. Courtly life isn’t the life of a common pony, and it’s the common life you’ll need to learn if you want to know how to best help them.”

                                            >Another moment of silence, before you speak again.

                                            >When you do, it is slowly and carefully.

                                            “If I did happen to find a place out there I could learn such lessons, theoretically, and my parents got upset because it wasn’t where they’d prefer I be…”

                                            >”Then I’m sure an aunt of yours would speak to them about it, even if she wasn’t responsible for your absence.”

                                            “That would make her the best aunt I have.”

                                            >”An interesting claim for someone with only one aunt. Are you trying to imply something?”

                                            >You two share a look, then a laugh.

                                            >Then a sigh, and you close your eyes.

                                            “Thanks, auntie. I have a lot to think about.

                                            >”Good timing; we’re here.”

                                            >When you open your eyes again and turn the corner you’ve reached, you find you’re in the corridor leading to your bedroom

                                            >The palace may be labyrinthine, but you know it well enough to have a rough idea of your position within it, and it was nowhere near here.

                                            >You look back at Twilight, and she winks at you. “Take your time to think, I have my own places to be.”

                                            >She disappears without even a flash, pop, or movement of air.

                                            >She’d teleported you without you even noticing.

                                            >What else from the element of magic?

                                            >You open your door and collapse on your bed, closing it again with magic.

                                            >You’d have to go somewhere far away, far enough outside the Empire that even communication hardly happens, let alone travelers that would be familiar with who you are.

                                            >Extra precautions on even that; alicorns aren’t exactly common.

                                            >Illusion magic to hide bits of anatomy is easy enough, even if it’d take enough power to leave little magic or concentration for other spells while it happens.

                                            >That means it’s more practical to hide your horn than your wings, since a unicorn who couldn’t cast magic would raise a few eyebrows.

                                            >You suspect you’ll be getting a crash-course in the earthpony way of life.

                                            >Your slightly taller, more slender physique could also draw attention, but some Canterlot unicorns have the same phenotype – you may have inherited it from your dad, who knows how your mom’s post-ascension genetics worked – but you could say you had a unicorn parent and maybe that’d end any questioning.

                                            >Courtly lesson: Always, if able, wrap a lie in the truth to help it go down easy.

                                            >Not the kind of lesson your parents would have liked you to learn, but the kind of lesson Court teaches.

                                            >All the more reason to get away.

                                            >You float a map over to your bed and unroll it overhead, looking up at the expanse of frontier on the edges of Pony civilization.

                                            >Several towns in dry areas on Equestria’s border, those might be good candidates.

                                            >You’re sure you’ll meet plenty of interesting ponies, maybe even other creatures.

                                            >After all, you haven’t the slightest idea what life out there is even like.

                                            >This will take some getting used to.

                                            >you roll over and bury your face in your pillow

                                            >One side of your mind, wondering if this is right, wars with the other, already planning your trip.

                                            >But first, you’ll need to write a letter.


                                            * * *


                                            Dearest Mother and Father,

                                            You have taught me my whole life that the most important quality a royal can have is a personal connection to their subjects. I have tried my best to apply this lesson to how I conduct myself in court and the Empire as a whole. More and more I find myself blocked by duties of state and the insulation of my position. I want to live according to your precepts, but with my life as it is right now, I’m faced with a choice between them and the reality of noble existence. I choose to believe in your teachings.

                                            I have decided to leave. I’ll go as far as I can away, and I’ll keep going until I can find a place I can connect to ponies on a personal level. I want to live among them, with them, as one of them. I want to learn what their lives are like, so I can know how to improve it. I’ll set aside my title and status and see life through their eyes.

                                            Please do not look for me. I don’t mean this as a sleight or rebuke, and I have nothing but love and appreciation for you both. I’m driven to this by my respect for all you’ve said and done for me. I have to do this to realize what you’ve taught me, and find myself in those lessons. When I think I finally understand, I’ll be back, I promise.

                                            With a lifetime of love, and a keenest sense of duty,

                                            Flurry


                                            * * *


                                            >”And they’re thinking of extending the main street a quarter mile.”

                                            >You snort at the stallion’s comment.

                                            “How, Brass? Stomping the dirt by hoof? It’s not like we pave roads out here.”

                                            >”Naw, fer plannin’,” Iron Works replies instead. “The farm’s’re only growin’, pard’n the wordplay.”

                                            >”They need more help,” Brass picks up, “and that means more housing around here.”

                                            >The smaller stallion sitting on your other side nods.

                                            >The three of you together pass for a collective town crier, gossiping as stallions are wont to, the metal brothers and token human.

                                            >‘Here’ is a little podunk settlement on the edge of Equestria. The last green you’ll see for miles, the joke went, though that depends on how much rain fell on the xeric regions beyond the town’s extensive-on-paper borders.

                                            >Farming is tough here, but at least consistent; the town was founded on the most favorable hydrology of a region not quite hopeless, with the closest river springing up not too far away.

                                            >The settlement is laid out according to some old earth pony tradition for small communities, with a central cluster of buildings arranged in a line, with a farm plot on either side. The main street Brass Tacks refers to is the only street, bisecting the settlement. It hosts most of the town’s facilities, including but not limited to one ‘fine dining’ establishment whose alcohol you help supply, a smithy, a post office and trading station, and the general store you run, the porch of which you three are sitting on.

                                            “I just don’t see the point. Start building. Who gives a damn about zoning, out here?”

                                            >”What’s’a matter, partner?” Iron asks.

                                            >”It’s just some paperwork,” Brass follows.

                                            “If I have to renumber my building again, I’m going to be upset.”

                                            >”You sound upset already,” Brass says with a  flick of an ear.

                                            >You fix him with a glare.

                                            “What if I am?”

                                            >”Stressed? You do a fine job running shop, but it’s a lot of work for one stallion.”

                                            ”It ain’t a gender thing. Back home the men did work like this and the women kept house.”

                                            >Iron snorts.

                                            “Hey, Tramontane and I are working out.”

                                            >”Working, alright,” Iron drawls in his usual slow and steady tone. “Ev’rypon’ works out here. Jus’ you two ain’t got a mare to help, if’n ya need, an’ tha’s th’point. Stressin’ ya.”

                                            “We’re not getting into this again. I have a responsibility to carry my weight, whether I have help or not. I’ll do that all alone if I have to. I have that duty to this town.”

                                            >“You need a mare,” Brass says. Iron snorts again as if it’s some sort of joke.

                                            “Between the two of you, you have a third of the mares in this town already claimed.”

                                            >”Farmin’ fam’lies’re big, Anon.”

                                            “Bah.”

                                            >You stand and turn for your door inside.

                                            >You have a pretty nice store. As far as one’s life’s work goes, it isn’t much, but it’s yours.

                                            >Originally just a supply depot annex to the trading station, you’ve slowly grown it into something respectable. You’re a community figure, now.

                                            >You’re about to start fiddling with something meaningless on the counter for the umpteenth time today when you hear Brass’s voice calling you again. “Hey Anon, come here.”

                                            >You sigh and turn back to the door, poking your head through it.

                                            “Are you going to offer me one of your mares?”

                                            >”Something almost as good. Look what just strolled into town.”

                                            >You step out and drop back into your porch chair again, squinting to peer down the street.

                                            >A pale pink pegasus stands at the end of it, looking around at the town’s humble architecture.

                                            >Her physique reminds you of some well-bred unicorns back in Canterlot (and there’s some unpleasant memories); slightly taller than normal, and quite slender. Her wings look larger than most pegasi, and are a bit more colorful than her coat, though nowhere near as vivid as her mane and tail.

                                            >She looks very lost.

                                            >”Wha’s she doin’ ‘round these parts?” Iron asks.

                                            >”Beats me. Cityslicker, I’d say,” Brass replies.

                                            “Oh come off it, I was one once too, even if only for a short time.”

                                            >”Yeah but you ran from that life. She’s got a look like she’s taking it with her.”

                                            >The pegasus trots up to your porch.

                                            >Her eyes sparkle with innocence and naivete.

                                            >The stallions on either side of you look back with guarded contempt.

                                            >You’re not about that.

                                            “What brings you to our little town?”

                                            >She blinks. “I, uh… I’m looking for a job.”

                                            “You’ve come a long way for one.”

                                            >”Yeah. Uh. I just want a place to lay low for a bit. Do you need any help around here?”

                                            >Both stallions slowly turn their heads to you.

                                            >You glance at both of them in turn.

                                            “What?”

                                            >”Might be some hired help would make ya less cranky, Anon.”

                                            >”You were just complaining how all the strong mares are already busy on the farms.”

                                            >The pegasus shuffles in place.

                                            >You sigh and stand.

                                            “What’s your name?”

                                            >”Uh. Kissy. Kissy Wings.”

                                            “Alright, Kissy. Come on in, lemme show you around. Don’t know how well you’ll do, or if I really need the help this bad, but I’ll give you a shot.”

                                            >You don’t need the help at all, and Brass and Iron can hang if they think you do, or that you just need to get laid.

                                            >Both you and Tramontane were from the outside, and you’re the two hardest working males in town. Maybe this newcomer will also work out.

                                            >Either way, a little kindness for a mare who sounds like she’s in trouble might be worth the effort.

                                            >Pay forward the kindness the town has shown you, and bring another into the fold.

                                            >Yeah, that’s it. Another way for you to fulfill your duty to them all.

                                            >You’ll see how this plays out.