A Penny for your thought

by Damaged

29 - Night School

"It's probably for the best, but I really hated seeing him hurt like that." I took a deep sigh, walking along with Night Watch.

The mare opened her mouth to reply but we heard from the open door of the court the call to please rise for the princess.

Stepping in, we barely found a seat before Cadance found hers and ended up sitting down just in time. "Seventy five percent chance nothing of consequence to us, happens today."

The first plaintiff was called and court was begun. It was a simple matter of one shop-owner complaining that another had purchased all of their stock, covertly, to sell it for a higher price.

It wasn't an overly common thing, but not working together seemed to be the trend among merchants here. "Oh, I think we might get a fish to bite, if only a private missive. The point of being here is to be here." I kept my whisper low, making sure only the lunar pegasus would be able to pick up on it.

Her eyes narrowed at me. "You are enjoying this?" She kept her tone neutral enough, but her distaste for court activities seemed quite apparent.

"Someone has to, it appeals to… my nature." It didn't offend me, not in the least. Everypony has their calling.

There was a gentle snort from the mare. She didn't make to leave however.

The day wore on, Cadance making rulings that mostly attempted to bring ponies together and resolve their differences without overtly supporting either side.

A letter dropped to my side and, looking around, I didn't spot who dropped it. Night raised an eyebrow until I shook my head at her. "It floated from the fourth bench, sixth pony in." She, living up to her name, had seen who had delivered it.

Opening the letter I unfolded it.

We cannot supply you with coin, but labor can be arranged for half the usual cost per hour. Please wait after court for us to talk.

I gave a half smile to Night. "Twenty five percent was good enough odds for me to bet a few hours of my time."

"You play risky odds with small bets, what would it take for you to bet large?"

I shrugged, my wings ruffling and buzzing a touch. "A sure thing, obviously. Like these ponies expecting me to give in to whatever demands they make, simply because they are likely the biggest supplier of worker ponies in the city."

Night looked like she knew but continued. "Then what would you bet me in this?"

"Nothing. You are a friend, or as close as both of us being partnered to good friends gets, and I will not take from friends."

"You would take from other ponies?" She had likely already run the numbers in her head, I was a changeling after all, our records were not clean.

"Nope, not unless it is freely given." Our verbal sparring made me smile, she was clever, observant and ruthlessly honest. "I am not Chrysalis, I hate what she did, not only to ponies but to any hope that changelings could come to ponies on equal standing."

Night was quiet a moment, we sat and listened to Cadance resolving another minor issue.

"So what will you do about that letter?"

I grinned and looked at it again. "Simple, I will accept their offer, any amount less than the going market rate will be credited to them as shares in our partnership. They will likely rail at that and get unhappy. If they take it far enough I will bid them a good day and do business around them. The bits we spend will not be aimed to line the pockets of the already wealthy."

There, a smile. She didn't make it easy to make friends, but then what simple task was ever rewarding?

---

The fireworks rained around me again and I giggled. I had managed to work it out, at last. Channeling through the outer edges of my horn was different than the middle, I could actually almost completely stop the leakage.

Adding the new understanding of how the symbols fit together as words had also made it easier for me to visualize the patterns themselves but I ruminated that it likely wouldn't change my learning rate, not with throwing this new channeling into the mix too.

I tried for speed this time, forming the symbols as fast as I could, trying to squeeze the pauses down to shorter lengths too. The spell didn't work the first try or the next few, but on my fifth it happened and I giggled as it rained sparkles and fireworks.

It was oh so tempting to look ahead in the book but I had promised Silver I wouldn't and I didn't want to let him down. This thinking brought up memories of what had happened when I told him. "Damn it, why did I have to freeze up like that. I am a mare, he is a stallion…" It returned, just thinking of the act caused an odd revulsion in me. I needed air.

Trotting to the door I reached and opened it with my magic. The action caused my belly to gurgle and I sighed. Too much magic without food. I started to wander down into the lower part of the castle when a scent caught my nose. I couldn't help it, it was delicious and I followed it to it's source. Suddenly there were big tough ponies all around me, I blinked in worry until I realized I had landed in the guard's mess room.

"Miss?" The guard who had met Stick and I at the gate the previous day came toward me. "Can I help you with-"

My belly gurgle interrupted him.

"Too much magic?" It was practically an accusation, but his smile ruled out any possibility of it being in a bad way. "Come on, silly unicorn. Really, you should take better care of yourself."

The others didn't stare, a few gave a nod to the stallion as he saw to me getting a plate and an extra helping of the heavier mashed vegetables. "T-Thanks." I managed as he settled the food on the table, opposite him.

"That is not a problem but you have to promise me, you'll take better care of yourself, particularly when casting spells."

It was then I wondered how he knew. But something had the attention of my slightly addled mind and before I knew it I had a mouthful of the most delicious carrots ever. At some point I was noticing the food fading from the plate and then another bowl of the pea soup appeared, levitated by blue magic. I barely slowed.

At last it felt like the hollowness inside was filled and I started to use my horn to operate my fork. "How did you know?"

"You looked distracted, it was either this or need, and you didn't smell of that." He froze and realized he had spoken way out of turn.

I was blushing up a storm myself and coughed, shoveling another mouthful of mash in.

"Sorry I didn't…"

Deep breath and food swallowed, I shook my head. "No offense taken. I was the silly filly here." He nodded a little to my reply and it seemed like that was that. Would that really happen to me? I blushed again at the thought that, in all likelihood, it would.

"Where is your other half? You two seemed attached at the flank." His question brought me back to the 'now' and I grinned.

"She is in Princess Cadance's court today, and likely most days it seems, moving and shaking, seeing where the Empire needs us the most."

He finished fishing out a troublesome carrot that had been avoiding his fork's tines. "That so? Well, she isn't looking in the right place. If you want, I could get you in touch with some ponies who won't try and rob you as quick as you talk to them."

"That would be most appreciated." I really looked it, as 'Miss. Stick's assistant' I could likely talk to ponies in a lot lower places than Stick could afford to be seen. "When could you organize such a meeting?"

He was done with his food, I realized he had eaten slowly so as not to finish too much before me. I grabbed the last mouthful of mash I was sure I could handle.

"I am off shift now, actually. If you don't mind the walk we could visit one or two right now."

I am not sure why but I trusted him to his word, after all, he was one of Cadance's guards!

He led the way out of the castle and we headed past the huge Crystal Heart. It was amazing, I sat down and looked at the facets and the dazzling colors. "Didn't get the tour before getting right down to business?" I shook my head, spellbound by the crystal. "Well, there won't be many other sights on the way, but this is probably the best. The Crystal Heart is the focus of all our hope and love, it is the single most powerful defense we have against the shadow and… him."

I knew who he meant. The thought of that stallion and what he had done to these ponies was terrifying.

"But enough of bad thoughts, come along and I will show you what I meant." He trotted off and I followed.

The target, as we approached, seemed to be something I should have known about. An orphanage.

I stopped and drew a deep breath, this could be hard on me. "You coming?" The stallion was at the door, hoof raised to clop on it. I nodded and moved up. After a few solid knocks the door opened and a mare's smile greeted us. She was a very wonderful example of her kind, a bright orange 'fur' with an almost silver-glistening mane and tail, her book and ruler cutie mark was displayed with pride.

"Well, little mister Pike, how is one of my naughtiest students of all time?" Her voice carried only affection and the guard stepped in, the pair embracing. "And who is your friend?"

"This is Penny, ma'am." He blushed immediately, having fallen into addressing the mare as a student would a teacher very easily.

"Penny? Well, much as I would like to think bad things of Sharp's friends, I simply must assume you are a good influence on this colt."

I couldn't stop my giggle as I nodded. "Well, we are only recently friends, so time will tell as to who influences whom."

Suitably joined in wordplay, the mare's smile grew somehow wider. "Come in, both of you. We were just breaking for lunch."

Sharp shook his head. "Oh no, we have already eaten." He sounded more than a little sad about it. "But Penny here wanted to look around and… oh you two are better with words than I will ever be. She is an investor and is working for," he turned to me, "how many princesses was it?"

"Not only has he never had tact, but I think he is losing some. My name is Spirit Soaring." I lifted a hoof to gently clop against her own. "Now, while this sounds like a nice visit, I think you will be looking for something more… substantial, to spend bits on, yes?"

"Yes and no. Your foals are well fed, the house looks bright." I gestured around. "So it makes me wonder why Sharp brought me here."

The mare's eyes narrowed and she called out. "Hope?" Two little ponies poked their heads around the corner to where they were obviously eating. "Hope Eternal, come out here for a moment." Two non-horned heads ducked back and the third trotted out, flank blank and trying to catch glances back to where she had been eating. "Tell the nice mare what you would like to do."

She blinked up, owlishly, the filly clearly a little overwhelmed at having to speak to a stranger without her friends. "Uh, I want to be a wizard!" Youthful enthusiasm quickly overcame her nerves and it came out as the most adorable exclamation.

"Good girl, now you go on back, if Patience took some of your food just tell cook, okay?" The foal nodded, looking back and forth between us and scampering off. "The problem, is thus. There is simply no testing out here, nor is it cheap to send a young foal to Canterlot, with a guardian, to have them tested there. We don't get a lot of unicorns, but I think it a shame that either they are stifled or don't get their training until much older."

I wasn't sure how the systems work, maybe it was a good time to find out. "You will forgive a mare who was herself not trained as a foal, but I am not aware of how the scholar system works, if you could explain that."

The mare looked surprised. "When foals are of an age to be finding out just what their particular special talent may be, the magic colleges send testers out to find and promote students to what they are best at… in Canterlot. While we really don't think it possible to be seen to every year by every college, we really would like it if we could have a local teacher who could send gifted students to Canterlot, or even train those with a little gift right here."

It was a tall order, the present system really discriminated against… most of Equestria and the Crystal Empire, could we change that?

Author's Note:

Whew, while Stick and Night work their hooves to the frog in Cadance's court, Penny lives it up.

Wait...

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Comments

[Damaged]

6878015 Dandy-lions are not dandelions :3

[No one is home]

6878830 I've always questioned the classification of dandelions as weeds. They ae both edible and perfectly serviceable flowers. What makes tulips so special? You can't even eat tulips. They're just harder to grow. Useless tulips.

[harts fire]

a interesting chapter that leads to question just how the schooling works out away from Canterlot.

[tsaukpaetra]

Hmm, some aspects of pre-unification persist.
They can't solve all problems, but some can get a friendly nudge or so...
Keep going! ;)

[Daremo]

but any hope - but to any hope
me you take - me you'll/you will take
half, you - half? You
He lead the - He led the
deep breathe - deep breath
to gentle clop - to gently clop - This is also a split infinitive, but Star Trek has made them commonplace so I leave it to you.
*****
It's never actually established that Hope Eternal is a unicorn, but it's easy enough to infer after a sentence or two.
*****
I'm enjoying how the story is developing and the world building that is happening because of it. The romance between Stick and Penny is slowly moving towards the back burner in this chapter, but that is ok. There is a lot of character and world development taking its place and it can't be hugs and kisses all the time, or it loses its sweetness.

[Damaged]

6880272 Thanks and yeah, because Stick and Penny are each doing their things, no snuggles. I promise some in the next chapter!

To explain a little further, one thing I greatly dislike in stories (a lot of fanfic is guilty of this), everypony apart from the main character is stupider than the main character. They don't do things themselves, they can barely survive the day without a visit from #1. Bleh. I couldn't live with myself and I think Stick would tear free from my head and drain me dry if I didn't give her a chance to be more than "Penny's Sidekick".

The first story I ever wrote, well, that I consider a story, I wrote the story from the point of view of the protagonist's friend. Sure they themselves were pretty cool, but the hero was their friend as sure as day.

[Cursed Quill]

only the lunar pegasi

I only know of one lunar pegasus there. So, pegasus.

[erictheblue]

6880437
you made me think of several videos talking about how silly it is that characters in videogames can't do anything for themselves, so the protagonist has to do EVERYTHING.