//------------------------------// // The Law // Story: Perseverance of the Ancients // by The Bourgeoisie Bear //------------------------------//    “Alright Octavo...” trailed off Twilight as she finished her checklist. The two ponies were entering the busier parts of Canterlot. With the help of the stallion nudging her, Twilight managed not to hit anypony as she wrote some extra notes down with her floating quill and ink. “I would prefer not to waste any time. So let’s see, we already have several useful books on human anatomy and behavior.” With the quill she made a check-mark. Both she and Octavo were carrying saddlebags filled with books and scrolls. “We already have two late-evening train tickets for the Crystal Empire.” She made another check as she took the tickets out and confirmed that she still had them. She stored them away and verbally confirmed her readiness, “Check.”    Twilight felt Octavo gently pushing her off course with his chest, stopping her from crashing into some oblivious shoppers.    “So Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Octavo began in what Twilight would describe as a deep and overly polite manner, “I understand that you and I never really spoke to each other much at the college, but I just wanted to say that it’ll be an honor working with one such as yourself. And I think it would be appropriate for me to congratulate you on becoming a princess and elevating your status and all that.” Now Twilight was realizing what had been bothering her about the way he had been speaking, it was too harsh. He drew out some syllables longer than he should have and he rolled some letters around in his mouth slightly. It had taken her a while to notice it.    Not sure if he was being real or fake with his praise, she just chuckled weakly, yet his demeanor suggested that he was serious. Although in truth, becoming a princess caused many ponies and especially bachelor stallions, to begin treating her with extra affection. Twilight was beginning to have trouble detecting who was sucking up to her and who was generally being nice.    “Well thank you, but you don’t have to address me as a princess, just Twilight is enough. And you can relax around me, there’s no reason you should be so uptight.”    “Sure thing, Miss Princess Twilight Sparkle,” he said in the same manner in the same way, his accent seemed to even thicken.    They were passing by the unequaled Saddle Avenue for a silent moment, the most praised fashion designer stores in all of Equestria. Twilight realized that if she was with Rarity they would never be able to simply walk by the display windows without being derailed from their current journey. Luckily for her, Twilight mused, Octavo like her just gave them a passing glance admiring the work put into them but not being apart of the vain herd of fashionable upper class trendy ponies. Twilight liked spending time with Rarity of course but it was nice to stroll by such a place without having to bargain with an ecstatic mare to move on with their mission from the co-rulers.    The ponies here seemed to throw money around with no apparent restraint which added a certain charm to the place, albeit one she didn't much care for. The three, four, and sometimes five story mansion-like buildings added a certain artistic, capitalist feel to the city.    Twilight watched Octavo grow more interested, he was looking around at the top windows of the more decorative buildings with large windows specifically designed to attract the eye. When he turned his head to her unexpectedly she was caught staring at him and quickly looked away.    “Hey Twilight,” he called out causing her to look at him again, “you were born and raised in Canterlot right?”    “Yep.” She wanted to continue off of that conversationally, but didn't know what else to say about the subject, she never really felt apart of the city, she preferred her books and her favorite nook.    “Tell me,” he said as he looked around, “what has been some of Celestia's fiscal policies during the nine years that I've been gone?”    Twilight had been expecting something more... mundane... and it showed on her face. “U-umm well, economics was never something I put a great deal of study into. I'm a bit worried I'll ended up telling you something that isn't true… or isn’t backed up by factual evidence.”    He snorted with a playful smirk on his face. “I'm not asking you for a thesis Princess Twilight, just something to sate my intellectual apatite. Like taxes for instance, would you say that their high or low or...”    “Oh,” chirped Twilight in realization, “well they are pretty low yes. The whole Empire is basically still structured like its old feudalistic self except with nobility we have lord mayors instead, who are elected, and some lord mayors have city mayors under them, as opposed to lords and dukes. So I suppose we have some Noble Republic aspects in our society.”    “Ah,” he mumbled, “that's very, very interesting.” He continued to examine the foreign land.    Twilight arched a curious eyebrow. “Just out of curiosity, how is Broncovy in terms of economics.”    “Well-” he stopped speaking sharply, seemingly holding his breath before he continued speaking, “-we have high taxes in order to keep a standing army and to fund our agriculture society. We don't really have the best land up north and its not that easy to grow anything up there.” Twilight continued nodding her head, not sure what to say at their less than optimal situation. “Thing is we would love to dismiss our army but with the griffins as our neighbors, and foreign bandits always prowling the isolated countryside --we can't. Not without horrible consequences. So we all try to help each other out, more or less.”    Instead of glancing back and forth between her and the road ahead he was now looking straight at her. “The co-rulers are always willing to help us out if we get a bad harvest as well, and they are always willing to provide us with a subsidized loan. So we do have an ally to look to when things get really bad. While in return we make sure Equestria's northern border is well protected and we keep the frontier as safe as we can from the humans, although that usually means diplomacy as opposed to war.”    “Huh...” Twilight grunted to herself, glad that she could turn the subject into something more relevant to what was going on. “You’ve been to the frontier, correct?”    “Yes ma’am.”    ‘I’m... younger than you...’ she complained to herself. “What exactly did you do out there?”    He inhaled deeply. “I did many things there, but mostly I bartered with the humans for the West Wing Trading Company. That and I learned about their culture and traditions.” As he pushed up his glasses a sigh that implied frustration escaped his lips. Twilight guessed it was directed at the situation and not his slipping glasses. “Do you have any idea how long this mission of ours may take?” he asked gently, his normal rough accent near gone. “I’ll need to inform my employer of this eventually. They’re expecting me to return after my three week break.”    Not wanting to be restricted or obligated to finish this assignment in a certain amount of time, or to metaphorically burn down a bridge that she may have wanted to cross later, she answered vaguely. “I don’t know, several weeks, several months, we will be done when we get done. It depends on us.”    “They're a lot more humans bordering the land of Broncovy then there are bordering Equestria,” he replied, “would this assignment entail any field study?”    She nodded. “At least part of it will be. We can study in Broncovy instead of the frontier if you like, but we need to go to the Crystal Empire first to learn what ponies already know of humans.”    “Good, thanks,” he replied, “I was looking forward to seeing my homeland again. But, it looks like I’ll have to ask for additional time off with the West Wing Trading Company. Celestia’s request and all. Not that I’m complaining or anything.” He cleared his throat.    She didn’t really know how to respond to that. It was almost a gripe against Celestia after all, so she just let it go.    In just a few short minutes they entered the slave master quarters of the marketplace, marked by the steady stream of shackled humans walking by carrying heavy backpacks. This manual labor went on all day every day by the mindless drones of humans.        Octavo had abruptly stopped. When she turned to him she saw he was eying a run down oddly designed building. It looked like some kind of store with a tall roof.    “Hey Twilight,” he uttered. Then paused as he pointed at the building. The hoof dropped, what he was going to say dissipated.    “What is it?” An eyebrow arched itself. “Is everything alright?”    He then faced her. Several chained humans walked by them, with a slaver leading the group. They had nothing on but a loin cloth, and looked busy with their task as they carried their backpacks filled with supplies down the street. The chains on their ankles rattled with each step they took.    “We’re going to buy several things here, including a human, right?”    She was confused by the manner of the question, her unsure response revealed her confusion. “...ye-eeees?”    He gave the building a solemn look. Then gave her a mischievous grin. “Follow me.”    She did so skeptically. He walked up to the great doors of the abandoned building and began trying to pry them open.    With the concept of a broken law in the air, her eyes shot open wide in realization. “Are you breaking and entering?!” A few ponies began to turn towards them.    “Not at all,” he grunted as he became more forceful. “I only wish to commune with the divine,” his tone and accent became harsh again. She watched as his surprisingly well toned muscles rippled underneath his fur. He pushed harder and harder. ‘Divine?’ she repeated mentally, not understanding what he meant. ’This place just looks like some rundown shop to me...’    When Twilight began to reexamine the architecture, she realized how grand the building looked, it was run down, it was old, but it had an imposing scale that must have looked marvelous back when it was still running. She noticed at this closeness, the worn decorative pillars running up the walls of the building, showing mercantile related designs, such as a scale, gold, spices and such, all gold or silver, each engraved into the rustic structure.    ‘Surprising no one thought to melt these valuable metals.’ Twilight continued to look the place up and down, noticing some of the windows high above her were broken.    With his patience almost gone Octavo backed up and cast an unlock spell on the door. She frowned. He winked at her, then bucked the doors open. She twitched at the noise.    The thick iron doors didn’t move much, but it was wide enough for one pony to enter at a time. He pushed up his glasses and went inside. “Come on,” he beckoned.    She looked around herself and saw several ponies were looking in her direction. Whispering to themselves. After practically being ushered in by their looks, Twilight continued on in a tip-hoof fashion, careful not to make any noise. Inside she saw Octavo aligning the many benches that faced some sort of alter.    At the hooves of Twilight, was at one time, a once royal-red carpet with gold trimmings, but now the whole thing was moldy, muddy, and was torn in several places. Completely worthless to all but a collector, or an interested museum perhaps. The one story building gave a sense of being an insignificant speak to the greater whole, the width, breath, and scope of the room did well to bring certain feelings to the forefront of one's mind. The chandelier that was leaning on the wall by some broken furniture would have once been hanging beautifully from the ceiling, the now torn banners would have once hung beautifully, and the desolate scene before her would have at one time been bustling with worshipers.    Many of the aging drapes over the lower windows were still somewhat intact, giving the impression that this place had suffered neglect, yet it was not ancient by any means. The stone walls and floor gave the place a medieval feel, and Twilight entertained the idea that it was built an extremely long time ago.    Her hoofsteps echoed through the dusty decaying room. Sunshine beamed in through the stained glass windows from the highest parts of the walls, catching falling dust in their light. She coughed as some of the debris got in her lungs. This wasn't her idea of wise time management. “Do you just really-really enjoy spring cleaning?” He stopped at her sarcastic remark, chuckling to himself. Continuing to the altar, he looked around; his smile faded and he sighed.    He approached that altar. The stone scale on the pedestal was broken, the right part of it was missing. The icon was just some stone scale, like the one used to measure weight, Twilight realized, nearly disappointed at the bland centerpiece. Octavo tried to put the broken thing upright, but when he released the levitation spell it fell over again.    “You're going to get us in trouble,” she warned, looking around for a guard, then looking again for a crazy homeless pony with a knife, not that Canterlot was a dangerous place --it wasn’t.    He didn’t respond.    Something significant was happening, Twilight could tell. This seemed to matter deeply to him, so she kept quiet.    Before she knew it, he had found the broken off piece and magically fused it together with a fix-it spell. He followed up by fusing it on top of the altar like it once was. After another fix-it spell cast on the entire altar he was done, now the once desolate heap of decaying building material looked like a true haunted temple that fillies would try to sneak into to prove how brave they were, and then end up screaming as they ran for the exits as the place began to give them the creeps, a questionable improvement quipped Twilight.    The benches were lined up and the altar looked better than it had in the last hundred years. The place still looked like a pathetic shell of its former glory, but at least it's previous function was beginning to look evident.    Somewhat satisfied with his work, he sat his flank down, lowered his head and began to mumble something under his breath. But stopped when he remembered that he wasn’t alone and turned to Twilight. He motioned to his side. “Why don’t you come pray with me? To Merustang, the God of trade, justice and fairness.”    Twilight looked up at the alter. “No thank you,” she replied as nicely as she knew how.    “Truly? Huh.” He turned back to the altar and spoke softly. “I figured you for a mare that could enjoy a moment back in time, a time when Equestria honored the gods that gave it such prosperity to enjoy... peace and power. You didn't seem to shut your mind away from economics even though that wasn't your area of expertise, but apparently your willing to do that with theology. Interesting.” He turned back to her. “I won’t take too long.” She heard him begin to pray.    “I-” Her response died in her throat. Twilight had studied about the gods and had known who Merustang was, but she never prayed to her. And she knew that to be an atheist was to be insane, the gods unquestionably walked the world and they had their crusades, their holy wars and directly spoke to their high priest and champions, but Twilight still wasn’t into all of that, nor was any Equestrian. Consorting with the gods was considered to be foolish and dangerous to all the ponies she knew. After all, meeting with the Lord of Chaos hadn't gone too well for her.    The spot by Octavo’s side was empty and she wanted to join him, if just for historical purposes. To meet somepony who honored the gods in Equestria was rare, and their champions did not come from or come to Equestria.    She sat by his side and Twilight saw a smile stretch across his face, he didn’t open his eyes. “I don’t know how to pray,” she whispered.    “I’ll show you how.”    It was an interesting experience that Twilight would eventually look back on with fondness, yet even now with her very young mind she found some peace and harmony in the ruins. The short sermon Octavo gave her about justice and fairness would stay with her for the rest of her life, because it had reminded her of what Celestia had taught her so long ago. She had almost forgotten about those late night lessons by the fireplace in Celestia's bed-chambers, and she was grateful for having those memories restored.    With a lesson in piety and history that cost her roughly ten minutes now over, she got up.    The once proud temple's humble abode had only entertained the two visitors for the past fifty years. It let out an indifferent aura, and simply watched the Equestrians forget it existed.    Twilight and Octavo took another turn praying for a fortuitous deal for a human. One that would ‘shed light on the original origin of the species.’    Done, Twilight stood, and so did Octavo, he stretched and popped his shoulder. Twilight could scarcely believe that she had been persuaded to take part in this.    “THIS IS THE ROYAL GUARD IN THE NAME OF THE CO-RULERS COME OUT NOW! YOU’RE IN A RESTRICTED AREA!”    The innocent studious mare ducked down behind a bench. Octavo meanwhile stood erect and turned to the guard who was peering in. The unicorn guard was casting a light spell to look into the drab place.    Twilight pulled him down to her. “GET DOWN!” she said behind gritted teeth. “We cannot get caught! Princess Celestia will be so furious at me for breaking and entering!”    A bit confused he looked at her. “We did nothing wrong. This place should have been up and running.”    “Okay, you don’t seem to understand, I have never been in trouble with the law --EVER! I’ve never even received a ticket before, I can’t let my reputation be ruined! No pony will respect me as a princess! They’ll think I’m just some hired thug! I’ll have to live by some other means, but all the employers will do background checks and they’ll see my criminal history and no pony will hire me and-”    “I CAN HEAR YOU IN THERE SHOW YOURSELF!” came the same voice.    All Twilight could do was hold her hooves over her mouth with her eyes closed shut. “I don’t want to disappoint Celestia. I Don’t want to disappoint my mom. My dad. Brother, I’m sorry.” She felt a single tear forming at the corner of her eye as she began to tremble.    When she opened her eyes she saw Octavo giving her a stoic disbelieving look. “Just stay down here, I’ll get rid of him.” He stood up. Twilight couldn't believe he did that. She froze both physically and mentally. The guard's light spell shined on him. “Hello sir, here to worship Merustang are you? The God of trade, justice and fairness.”    “Who? Never mind that, get over here.”    Twilight still hiding behind the benches could only listen in on what she heard.    “That’s close enough. Now turn around... I said TURN AROUND.”    “Please sir what crime have I committed?” he asked as kindly as he knew how, his accent was near gone, but the nature of his question seemed so defiant, even to Twilight. Deep down she knew the guard was getting upset --quickly.    “You broke the law, breaking and entering, and you’ve disturbed the peace.”    “You are incorrect actually,” replied Octavo in a polite yet direct manner. “Pilgrims are always welcome to any and all shrines, they may not be kept from worshiping.”    “That law doesn’t exist here.”    “You misunderstand me sir, I quoted a divine law not a civil one.”    Twilight silently slapped herself. “Is he seriously going to go this route, he wants to go down that road? Really? Seriously?!”    “Then the two laws are in conflict apparently,” the guard replied sarcastically.    “Correct, so the divine one over rules the civil one.”    “NO-NO-NO, the law from the co-rulers is supreme. Obviously.”    “That is correct,” mused Twilight. “Oh wait. Who’s side am I even on here?”    “The law of the gods is supreme, it is divine and holy, the text are inextricably clear.”    The guard sighed. “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the really easy way, your move.”    “Oh no-no-no Octavo don’t fight a Royal guard! He’ll beat you into a bloody pulp and it’ll show on your record! FOREVER! And that’s resisting arrest, another offense! Come on, your smart, you went to the Celestial College, put two and two together, you’re not a fighter.”    “I am bound by holy decree to not abide by your conflicting secular laws. I cannot budge even for a moment.” A moment of silence.    “Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please.”    Several spells went off, Twilight began to shake. Bug-eyed she listed to bodies hitting the furniture and benches grinding and sliding.    Then the wheezing and choking began. Twilight peeked to see Octavo standing over the guard strangling him with his hooves, angling the stallion's horn away from him.    “OH SWEET CELESTIA YOU’RE KILLING HIM!? ARE YOU INSANE?!”    Twilight saw Octavo shoot the guard with a sleep spell, but she couldn’t stop herself from rambling. “I’m an accomplice, to a murder! I didn’t think today would end like this. I’m a cold-blooded killer!”    Octavo sighed. “Again, we did nothing wrong, we broke a non-serious secular law, while this guard broke a divine law, I would worry for his future with fear and trembling were I him.” His voice was back to speaking in a deep tone. “And he’s not dead, just sleeping. And if you’re that scared of being found out then I can just erase his memory.” He cleared his throat.    “That’s a serious offense!” she cried, in shock of his offer.    “Pff, a mere pony-made law in the shadow of a holy law given to us by the righteous-”    “Fine let’s do it!” Her hooves were quickly touching the ground and curling back to her side in rapid succession. “We’ve gone too far, we can’t turn back now!”    He rolled his eyes, not a sign of worry apparent on him. It didn’t take him long to push up his glasses and cast the spell. “I’ll leave no trace.” After a short moment that felt long to Twilight it was over. “Its been done.” He looked up to her, then yawned. “So let’s go get that human.”    They then turned to the door as they heard several royal guards in the distance. Twilight gasped. “Oh no!”    “Follow me, they’ll be a back door exit to the chapel, there always is.” She followed him with shaky hooves and adrenaline filled legs. She was in a daze-like state, this didn’t feel real to the strait lace mare. He led her down a hallway, through a living quarters, through a bedroom and to an unimpressive wooden door. An unlock spell was cast and with a little shove the door was pried opened. It led outside to a busy street. When Twilight left the building she could hear the guards hoof armor echoing from the altar room. He closed the door then cast a lock spell on it.    “See, that wasn’t so bad was it?” She continued following him as he led her into the crowded river of walking ponies in the street, they were incognito now. Safe.    Twilight turned to the stallion next to her. She wanted to slap him, or tell him that she regretted bringing him along, but she couldn’t. Something innocent about his face stopped her. “You owe me so much for that.”    He shrugged. “Uhh, sure, anything, anytime, anywhere.”