I waited and waited for the unexpected but found myself wandering again in Victory's tale, hopeful I think, to watch in the park two pupils learn from each other the lessons of friendship. With the morning away time seemed to slip, leaving one to talk and the other lain her coat contrasting with a grassy green as with the bulk of a tree in shadows, only one of her toes touched by the shining sunlight. Her breath was less than the breeze in foliages, in the floating shades cutting sharp her two eyes were two stones and polished would reveal trying and trying all there was, all there would be, but a stonehearted mare.
There were, on trees, still slight marks of crust, grayish or gone.
Reaching her two piles of book back at the bench the lavender mare sighed, then paced back with a scroll she unrolled for her sit student. This was basics, and she made her repeat the elements of harmony to stop at kindness. "Kindness means… being kind!" Twilight said as the scroll levitating would show a symbol among five others. Being kind, to care for, to show attention and altruism, when her own student frowned the mare guessed she didn't understand that word. She took the first example she could think of, and asked, "how was school?"
Victory wasn't at school that morning. Cherrilee didn't want her near the foals, she stated, her eyes fixed on Twilight's eyes. Neither did the Cake. She had slept outside. Her voice, her look void far more than the words let the studious unicorn shaken. Quiet, a quiet tone and monochord, after a short silence Victory genuinely added:
"Haue I done something wrong?"
"I'm not sure… I don't think so" Twilight answered, grieved. She had still the vivid memory "back then… you were smiling…"
She brushed those moments away to focus on the lesson itself, since it was one of the last elements to review she would make "extra" sure to lay out her exhaustive knowledge about it. And she began, and her pupil's head fell between hooves, listening, watching the pages fly before her, feeling anger at each smile of her teacher and her joyful voice. Even when Fluttershy approached them, flying low then fluttering to land and pace past the bench she kept patiently listening. The young creamy pegasus first behind her friend quickly went before her to finally get her attention.
The blazing mare watched them talk, their happy faces, the jolts on their lengthy brushed manes, the sun on their bristle. It was about another animal the pegasus had trouble with, but Twilight wasn't sure if she could stop her lesson in the middle. "Let us go" Victory got up and intervened, a heavy pace on the ground. The lesson would wait, a mare needed help, she went forward on the path quickly followed by Fluttershy. It took more time for Twilight to snap out and say "wait for me!" Before trotting after them.
On the road the mare explained, around them the vast fields of green and whirled bushes contrasted with the darker forest far ahead. "She must come from the Everfree Forest" the mare proposed, the creature was a she who had fallen from a tree and hurt its head. She added something about glow worms when she stumbled on an anchor.
"What's an anchor doing there?" Twilight wondered after her friend.
All three followed the rope attached which was hanging up in the air, at the bright woody hull of an airship, air oars still moving on the cyan sky.
The captain's voice confirmed a full halt. Proudly at the bow feeling the wind in his mane the Prince turned and followed the guardrail on the side, stopped to let one waiter adjust his tie, the flower at his neck as the other waiter approached a plate with his cold tea. He then boarded the platform and let the sounds of blocks and that of the captain weaken behind him in his descent. Before the platform touched he jumped aground and sighed, relieved, but quickly regained his royal composure to approach the mares.
"Twilight Sparkle" Blueblood greeted, "a charm to see you again. Same with your friends, this must be Rainbow Dash I presume."
"Good day to you Prince" The studious mare frantically intervened. "It's an honor to have you here! What brings you to Ponyville?"
He had come for Victory, the mare frowned and backed away asking why and the Prince explained, that her reputation had reached Canterlot, at what news the mare backed a bit more, how she was often mentioned and she gritted her teeth. The dazzling stallion had come to the conclusion that he would become a knight. He waited for a reaction, got none, the three mares looking at him eyes wide. So he waited some more until Twilight got it, "you want to be… a knight?" She wondered.
"A white stallion of bravery and admiration, stunning crowds with his sole name." Blueblood rubbed his hoof on his chest. "And I have come for Victory to help me become one."
For seconds the blazing mare stood silent, letting them talk more, and the Prince was explaining how an airship allowed all the comfort while in the countryside. For seconds the mare heard her own heartbeat and felt the dirt on her hooves, sounds whistling in her ears. Fluttershy touched her elbow, asked if she was alright. She seemed to wake up, turned and returned on the road towards the young pegasus' cottage.
Blueblood looked at her leaving, asked intrigued: "Where is she going?"
"I… will go see!" Twilight said, a bit distressed, "wait here!" And as the Prince nodded she galloped after her student.
Of course she wouldn't train this stallion, Victory stated to the two mares flanking her on each side, still pacing away she asked why she ever would. "But it's the Prince!" But she shook her head and shook her teacher's heart, she would recognize no royalty but the Princess. "But he wants to be…" a knight, the mare cut Fluttershy with gall in her voice. She was striding faster, the Prince and his ship farther behind, "but what will I tell him?" The unicorn stressed. Victory accelerated even more, said in exasperation if he wanted to become a knight, to act like one or to "debreide" his horn.
They let Twilight leave and waited for her before the bridge, in silence, they saw her trot back to them and the creamy mare asked how it went. Her friend forced an unconvinced smile, they wouldn't have to worry about it she proposed while pushing them to go on, past the bridge leaving all things behind but the cottage.
Behind by the short fences Fluttershy's creatures surrounded a table on which was put a thick bush, leaves dry and crisp in a deep yellow touch. The young pegasus trotted to the bush explaining that each time she tried to heal the wound the creature wouldn't let her, and she designated the plant. "Uh, Fluttershy…" Her unicorn friend pondered how to state the obvious, "are you sure it- she fell from a tree?" But the young mare was certain, she told her friend to look at the head and her hoof hovered over the leaves.
A hoof on her face Twilight turned to Victory for help, saw her with a tiny bell hanging at her mouth. She had taken it in the kitchen, said something about legends and let the bell ring for a few seconds. The bush frisked, frisked some more and suddenly all leaves retracted on the golden coat of a lengthy stoat. "Oh, an herbin! Of course!" The student exclaimed and approached the little trembling animal. There it was, a little scratch on the temple, just before its tiny ear.
"How cute!" She couldn't help but add as the creamy mare applied balsam on the wound. "But I thought they lived at night? How come you met one?"
"Oh, it's nothing special." Fluttershy quietly answered. "You see…" And she stopped, the motion of her hoof halted. Her friend insisted, so she just added with a bit of doubt "I prefer to tell you another time… If you don't mind…"
She felt Victory's eyes on her, the two diamond eyes expressing nothing. The blazing mare noticed it, looked away and went to put the bell back in the kitchen, leaving Fluttershy relieved. "I'm still a bit nervous with her…" she admitted to Twilight who reminded the shy pegasus how she was nervous with mostly everypony. Of course it was different, the unicorn sighed, but she couldn't tell exactly what. They didn't finish, the mare had reappeared to ask if they were done here, as her lesson awaited.
They left the cottage, its green roofs and its moss past the bridge and back to the path, back to Ponyville. They slowed down as both saw the airship still anchored exactly where they had left it, the gracious balloon throwing its shadow on the ground, turned their coats in darker tones. Still the path was free, no Prince in sight so they continued towards the park where more ponies had come to relax, playing on grass and around the fountain. The two piles of books were still there untouched, as was the area, as if preserved. The lavender mare thought to report the lesson, since it was louder around, but Victory insisted, scratched the ground when asking her teacher to teach her, suddenly slammed the ground making those stallions and mares who weren't already looking look at them.
"Hello again" Blueblood gently smiled and approached the two mares. "This isn't Canterlot of course, but I suffered expedients and this lovely here helped me clean my horn."
Following the classy stallion was a mare of blue streak, with the shiniest smile of the town holding a tooth brush. And, indeed, his horn was even cleaner than usual, the curves on it almost those of a newborn. "Wat is this jape?!" Victory yelled, furious at the stallion and at Celestia's student who lost her chuckle. Already Blueblood was approaching, saying he was ready to become a knight without the slightest care for the mare's fury. He was at her height, asked when they would begin.
"Neure, fle fore I rende oure leggs down to bowe."
The Prince turned to Twilight, asked what it meant. The tone alone had made him step back. "She… refuses" and the Prince, shocked, asked why. He was royalty, he could reward her, he did what he was asked. And Twilight, anxiously, asked Victory to be reasonable, to treat Celestia's nephew more reasonably. "Him, hir neue" she rejected the idea, growling, then paced on the ground out of rage as the studious mare pleaded her to at least try. Fed up the blazing pony strode to Blueblood, toe on his tie, defied him.
"Stand here, no move, no food, no drink, no talk, one day and one night" she forced herself to swallow "or be gone."
"Fine!" Blueblood answered with disdain. "I will." And he turned back, walked away adding "of course I can" as he was leaving them he continued, it would be easy for him, so easy, and he left the park.