Altruism

by Ogopogo

Chapter 2

As Twilight quickly learned, Blueblood was a very sought after pony. Whom he was sought after by was another question altogether, though she found she could neatly group them into the unifying category of “snobbish elites”. They were all after something too, coupling their requests with bowing, scraping and what could be politely called “sucking up”. It was as though they felt Blueblood owed them a personal debt. The third noble soon made his excuses and departed, leaving Twilight and Blueblood in the same hallway they had been trying to walk down for the past ten minutes. Thankfully, they seemed to catch a break, and covered a little more distance without being stopped. That is, until a pair of ponies spotted him, who were oh so different from the last.

By the time they actually reached their destination, even Blueblood seemed irritated at the interruptions. At the very least Minster Honey Walnut – the stallion Blueblood was meeting – was a mark better than either Jet Set or Upper Crust, both of whom nearly epitomized the stereotype of a Canterlot Noble.

Honey Walnut was a golden brown unicorn, who looked liked he had he seen more winters than almost any pony Twilight could recall. The streaks of grey through his chestnut mane were a testament to the fact. The age of the stallion was only reinforced by his mannerisms, which were a throwback to many years past. When Twilight had offered her hoof in greeting, he bent down and brushed his lips against her coronet. The blush on her cheeks was inexplicable when the very idea of somepony kissing her hoof was more unsettling than it was courteous.

“Is everything alright Princess?” Honey Walnut asked. His bushy eyebrows rose to disappear in his mane.

She fought back the blush. “Fine, yes.”

“As I was saying,” Blueblood continued, “Honey Walnut is the current Minister of Environment. I had arranged to meet with him yesterday before I rescheduled.” Twilight figured the introduction was more for the jab than anything else; there was no way she couldn’t know who Walnut was.

“Departing minister actually,” Walnut offered sadly. Twilight’s jaw fell open and Blueblood shared the sentiment, albeit muted. Seeing their expressions, he elaborated. “My wife had a heart attack last month, and you could say it changed our priorities.”

“Is Wish alright?” Blueblood asked, his voice cracking. “If I had known...”

“Well, we like to keep our personal affairs to ourselves, not see them in the gossip rags. In any case, she’s made a full recovery but the doctor could find neither rhyme nor reason why it happened. Just age and stress we were told. The diagnosis also came with a recommendation to try a slower pace of life.” He chuckled mirthlessly. “As soon as I can find somepony to fill my position, we’ll be retiring to our home in Vanhoover, but Wish isn’t the type of mare to take it slow.”

A bark of laughter escaped Blueblood.“Yes, Wish certainly isn’t like that.”

“I’m sorry to hear you’re retiring,” Twilight said. “I’ve always heard nothing but good things about you.”

Walnut dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Much from your friend, Fluttershy, I presume.”

“Why yes... How did you know?”

“I’ve met with her quite often over the years for this or that.” He hummed in thought. “Let’s see... I believe I first met her over.... Concerns, that problems with the Ponyville Dam were leading to erosion and depletion of minerals from the soil nearby. It turns out there was a problem with the dam, and it would have eventually led to a collapse. Fluttershy learned of it from animals who drank water from near the dam.” He smirked at the memory. “She said they thought it tasted funny.”

The story came as a surprise to Twilight. She wouldn’t have guessed that Fluttershy would have contacted somepony from the government, a minister no less, just over a concern. Yet, another part of her mind pointed out that if it was to the benefit of the wildlife around Ponyville, there was little Fluttershy wouldn’t do. The more Twilight thought it, and what their lives entailed, the more writing to Honey Walnut seemed rather plain when compared to making friends with Discord.

“Back to the matter at hoof,” Blueblood cut in, “Am I correct in assuming that your retirement is what you wanted to speak to me about?”

He snorted, and stamped a hoof against the marble floor. “Bah! Always in a rush, aren’t you?”

Blueblood didn’t react beyond raising an eyebrow. “And?”

The eyeroll seemed ill-befitting somepony of Walnut’s age. “Yes, that is why I wished to speak to you.”

“Very well then.” Blueblood turned to Twilight. “If you wouldn’t mind...”

She sighed; she had been waiting for it. “Yes, I’ll wait out here.”

→ ↔ ←

Fifteen minutes passed, and the only ponies who passed Twilight’s post were a pair of Solar Guards who gave her a sharp salute before carrying on, and a maid who didn’t notice her around the laundry cart she was pushing. The maid was lucky Blueblood was inside, otherwise Twilight could only imagine the reprimand he would have given her. When the hall was empty once more, Twilight sighed and stared up at the ceiling. This was not how she had intended to spend her day. She could have accepted tagging along with Blueblood, but not if he was just going to push her to the side as he was now.

Twilight gave her wings a quick flap as an itch became unbearable. It was probably just a feather sitting askew, but she hardly felt like preening in her current mood. If Celestia had asked Blueblood to help her, perhaps even teach her something, then what was the point in his charade. He seemed eager to keep her out of his work. Work that, by all rights, she had just as much of a responsibility to contribute to. The duties of the crown were meant to be shared.

It was bad enough that he seemed to be skirting around the issue, even ignoring her all but blatant hints earlier. During the meetings with the nobles who intercepted them, he had acted like she wasn’t even–

The itch struck Twilight again. This time, however, ruffling her wings did nothing but make it worse. She opened and held her wings outstretched to stare at the offending spot, readily to pluck a feather if need be. Only, as she focused on the spot, she found it wasn’t so much of an itch as it was a feeling reminiscent of flying. It was an easy decision to abandon her post by the door to find the source of itch, all the more so when a few steps was enough for the feeling in her wings to change. The... Something, guided her five rooms down and then to the door to her left. She stared at it as she contemplating knocking, before a shudder ran through her and settled her decision.

Twilight knocked thrice on the door, and waited. A faint hum she hadn’t noticed abated, and then the door opened. She flinched in surprise.

The slender ruddy red pegasus tilted her head and smiled. Though from Twilight’s position it was more of a frown. She was entirely one colour, from the roots of her mane to the colour of her irises. “Oh heya princess!” The mare was upside down, and alarmingly at ease with the fact.

“Um... Hello there, miss...”

“I’m Paprika,” she answered cheerfully. “Whatcha need help with?” She gave Twilight a confused look at a sudden realization. “And why are you upside down?”

Twilight opened her mouth, and closed it. “Pardon?”

“Why are you upside down?”

“I– I... I’m not,” Twilight said slowly.

Paprika glanced back into the room. The turn let Twilight see the large piece of cardboard taped to the wall with an arrow pointing to the floor. Written below it in large block font upside down was ‘This side up’. She then glanced out beyond Twilight, for the first time noticing the hall. “Ohh...” Paprika flailed in the air for a moment as she sought to right herself. It was only then did Twilight realize what had struck her as such an oddity. A pegasus flying upside down was one thing, but Paprika had been doing so without even flapping her wings. “Well, there goes that theory.”

“How!” The word burst from Twilight's mouth unbidden.

Paprika brought a hoof to her chin in thought. “My theory? Well, if what just happened is evidence of--.”

“No!” Twilight practically shouted. “How were you flying upside down?”

“I wasn’t flying though.”

“Exactly!”

“But you just asked if I was flying.”

“Upside down,” Twilight confirmed.

“Well, down is relative, but on the upside...”

“Upside?”

“Down,” Paprika said, grinning widely.

Twilight blinked, and stared at her for a moment. “Really?” she deadpanned.

Paprika giggled and spun about in the air. “What can you do for you Princess?”

“Well, you could start by telling me how you are flying like that. Seriously this time,” she quickly added.

“I wasn’t–”

“Floating then?” Twilight said in exasperation. “Does it really matter?”

“Let me just fetch my notes then, they’ll help me explain.” Paprika turned and with one flap of her wings she glided across the room. Just as earlier, she still floated through the air with them closed.

Mystified, and taking the open door as an invitation, Twilight stepped forward.

When Paprika turned around and saw Twilight coming in, her expression changed to one of panic. “Princess, wait!”

The cry came too late.

When Twilight stepped fully into the room, all her weight lifted from her joints, and her hooves left the ground from the force of the gentle walk. Then she panicked.

For most pegasi – or other winged races – when suddenly faced with no ground beneath their hooves, their natural instinct was to open their wings and flap. If a cloud was thin enough that they would fall through, a pegasus would flap their wings to climb back up. In the same way, Twilight had unfurled her wings and flung them in a downwards stroke. Seemingly without gravity’s pull, a feeling not entirely different from free-fall, the stroke was excessive. In the space of a heartbeat, she shot upwards and collided with the ceiling. One wing clipped the modest light fixture and skewed her recovery stroke into a spin. Gravity lurched and pulled at her and every loose item in the room, sending up a cloud of miscellaneous objects. Another bump; another angle.

“Twilight!” The world inverted itself, then tumbled from the continuous roll. Between the fourth and fifth bounce, Paprika smashed bodily into Twilight and wrapped her legs around her barrel. “Close your–” they bumped off the wall. “Close your wings! Stop fighting it!”

“What!?” Twilight shouted.

Paprika gritted her teeth and jabbed a hoof into the base of Twilight’s wings. Her wings snapped shut to protect her sides, and Paprika quickly shimmied her grip upwards to keep them from opening again. It took a moment of careful readjustment with her own wings, but Paprika managed to stop them, leaving them floating in air.

“Twilight?” Paprika said softly.

“Err... What even was that?”

“I promise I’ll explain everything to you, but I need you promise to stay calm and wings closed.”

Twilight breathed deeply, or as deeply as she could while being clasped in a bear hug by Paprika. “Alright.”

She let go of Twilight slowly. “Don’t fight it. Right now up and down don’t matter.”

Twilight looked around the room in sudden understanding. “We’re levitating... But sustained self-levitation is not possible. Well, not easily at least. The forces would have to perfectly counteract each other perfectly and you would still need a static point of origin. Even gravity reversal spells don’t work like this...”

Paprika giggled. “Is this really levitation?”

Twilight raised her hoof limply before her. Unlike any levitation she had felt before, there wasn’t the tell-tale feeling of pressure holding her up. It wasn’t levitation, but weightlessness. She jerked about, looking for floating objects before Paprika grabbed her again.

“No wings,” she warned. The she let go.

“Paprika, it’s just... Weightlessness is something that ponies have been trying to achieve for years. How did you...”

“Princess...” Paprika trailed off suddenly, looking uncomfortable. She shook her head, and her infectious smile returned. “Nevermind. It’s just pegasus magic.”

“Pegasus magic?”

“How do pegasi fly?”

“It’s widely known that wings of a pegasus would be unable to lift something the size of a pony. It’s part of their magic...” It clicked.

Paprika nodded.

“Wait, are you saying that pegasi fly by magic themselves weigh less?”

She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. No one knows. Why do you think I’m doing all of this?”

“You don’t know?”

She gestured to the desk covered in various devices and gadgets. Twilight couldn’t even put a name to half of them, and the ones she could were cutting edge and on her wish list. “There’s never been the equipment which could let me do and measure this.”

“But you are doing it, how could you not know?”

“Because it’s instinctual. When you were first learning how to levitate something, did you understand how levitation actually worked? Don’t you still have to make assumptions to fully explain how levitation works?”

Twilight was silent in thought. “Point taken. But surely you have some theories.”

“Well, yes. One of the first theories I had was it, in essence, nullified mass. Items affected by the field still have the same momentum though, meaning it couldn’t be that simple. Not to mention how air friction and wind would play on it. The field could instantaneously normalize upon a collision with an item, averaging between the two, but I need a lot more time and work to even considering proving that.” She spread her wings and gently drifted to the floor. “Oh, could you come down here too?”

The last part went unheeded “Anything else?”

“It could reduce the pull of gravity on an object. The problem is, in lower power experiments, things affected by the field fell at the same velocity as those that weren’t.” She picked up a notebook from the floor and flipped through pages randomly. “I mean, I’ve been trying different things and there seems to be more depth than just one thing. Maybe it’s both of them, or more, but until I isolate them and can repeat the experiment, I can’t be sure.”

“Still, this... Paprika this is incredible! Do you know–”

Paprika looked up, and was shocked to see Twilight hadn’t moved. “Princess,” she interrupted, “you should probably get down here.” Paprika interrupted.

“Pardon?”

“Get down here.”

Twilight kicked her legs, but barely moved, beyond flipping her on her back. At the very least, the cardboard sign was right side up now. “Uh, give me a moment.”

“I don’t mean to rush you but if you could hurry...” Paprika licked her lips nervously as she glanced at an egg timer on her desk. “Oh.”

Twilight followed her gaze. “Oh, what?”

The egg timer rang once, louder than any egg timer had business being, then stopped. Twilight glanced back up– down at Parika, puzzled. It rang again, and just as before, it stopped.

“Twilight!” Paprika shouted, her ears folding back against her head, “Get–”

It rang a third time, then it fell silent. Nothing happened.

Twilight looked at the timer, then back at Paprika. “Huh,” she said. “What was–” Suddenly gravity resumed control and Twilight fell. “Ow,” she groaned into the floor. She grunted when a spoon which had been caught on the light fixture decided to fall on her head.

“Sorry,” Paprika said sheepishly. She offered Twilight a hoof. “I only designed the experiment to last for a few minutes at a time, and still give you time to get down after the timer rang. I estimated the time by looking at how the field would hold up with two ponies. With a second pony, the field... Well, fell, pretty well when I predicted. Sooner actually, considering you didn’t come in at the start.”

Twilight pulled herself up. “I should have known better to barge in on an experiment.”

“And I should have told you sooner.”

“It’s fine,” she said with a sigh. She glanced around the room, noting the rather peculiar choice in decor. White canvas sheets were stretched along every wall. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s with the canvas.”

“It’s something I’m trying till I can get a better space,” Paprika answered. “One part of my tests involves disorientation and whether or not I’m able to orient myself correctly in a full saturated field.”

“Well, that would explain some of it, but aren’t there other features you could use, like the light fixture or desk? And full saturated field?”

“Like I said, until I can get a better space. And as for ‘full saturated field’...” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Well, I’m using that till I can come up with better terminology. I’m largely working from scratch here, so I’m kinda making it up as I go.” Paprika wandered over to a corner of the room and poked at a white box a few times before lifting the lid to reveal a complex mechanism.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked. She hadn’t noticed it before, and looking around, she found one at each corner of the room.

“This,” Paprika said, pulling a crystal from its slot, “is what projecting the field. A friend of mine helped me design them. The four of them together balance the field.” She dropped the spent crystal into a bin by the desk.

Something clicked in Twilight’s head. “So when I came in and started flapping my wings...”

She nodded. “Yeah, you kinda messed with the field little. It tried to compensate... And... Yeah. If they had been calibrated, then it could have compensated properly. But without anypony to help me, it’s a little hard to do that.”

Twilight saw an opportunity and took it. “So, could you say you need help?”

“Well, it would be nice.”

“Could I help?”

“Maybe, but–”

She clapped her hooves. “Excellent!”

“But–”

Paprika’s protests were lost on Twilight. “Ever since Star Swirl the Bearded first theorized it, ponies have been trying to create true gravity nullification spells for years! This is the closest thing I’ve ever seen or read about to one, and trust me, I’ve read a lot of old spellbooks! Even the opportunity to help you develop one would be amazing!”

Paprika’s concern gave way at Twilight’s enthusiasm. “Alright princess, you can help me.”

“So, what can we start with? Is there– ” Twilight’s mind caught up with her mouth, and her grin turned to one of sheepishness. Again, she found herself internally cursing Blueblood’s stubbornness.

“Remembered something?” Paprika asked slyly.

“Yes... I would love to stay, but I already have something going on. I can drop by later if that’s fine with you.”

“I’ll be here all week, so you don’t have to worry... At least until I move elsewhere anyway. Just don’t rush in next time, alright?” She offered Twilight a hoof.

Twilight bumped it with her own and chuckled. “Alright.”

→ ↔ ←

The arrogant voice of Blueblood greeted Twilight before the door had even closed behind her. “Oh, so that’s where you went.”

Twilight sighed and leaned her head against the doorframe to find patience. She turned to face him. “Sorry Blueblood. My curiosity got the better of me.”

He stopped in front of her. “You do remember the terms of our agreement, correct?”

“Of course.”

“Then that’s a few minutes added onto it. It would seem your bill will have to wait till tomorrow.

“Really?” Somehow, she wasn’t even surprised.

“I have an unavoidable visit with the minister of finance which will take up the remainder of the afternoon. Holding you to your promise would be impossible otherwise.” With that, he walked off, expecting her to follow.

She did, but with a barely audible sigh. It wouldn’t change anything to try and protest his decision.

“So who did Honey Walnut–”

“Walnut departed a few minutes ago. We’ll be taking the matter of his replacement with auntie later. I was speaking to Lady Rosaceae before you came out.”

Another noble. “What did Rose...” She paused, grimacing at her pronunciation. “What did Rosaceae want to ask you?”

“Lady Rosa, if it is easier.”

“Right, Lady Rosa.”

“She intends to run for the position of crown advisor. She was looking for my endorsement; nothing more.”

“Does she need it?”

Blueblood stopped mid-step to look at her. “You are aware of how our government operates, correct?”

She winced; he had her. “I do, but before I became an alicorn I never really had much ambition for politics except as Celestia’s student. Consequently, I didn’t pay as much attention to the process of being appointed to such positions as I did their duties when I was studying. Maybe after a few more years, I would have, but then I got my wings...”

“And you were given a station above them.”

She hated how he made it sound, but it was true. “Yes. So?”

He started to walk again. “The position of Crown Advisor technically does need the endorsement of royalty, however the endorsement is not limited to a single selection. Twelve ponies already have it and time yet remains before the window closes.”

“What did you think of Lady Rosa? Will she be given an endorsement?”

“We’ll see. I’m awaiting one final document before I make my decision. A servant should be along with it any moment.” He hummed in thought. “Tell me, Twilight, what Royal Duties have you taken up?”

“I... I’m not quite sure what you mean.”

“While I have heard from auntie about your cutie map– ” if she hadn’t been listening closely, she would have missed the disbelief in his voice, “ – I haven’t heard of anything else outside of token and ceremonial duties.”

She wasn’t going to take the bait, however much he was trying. “While I offer help with friendship problems at my castle as a form of court, and travel when the cutie map asks it, I won’t pretend that it isn’t something that anypony could do with the right experience and practice. After all, I may be the Princess of Friendship, but friendship isn’t exclusive to me. It’s a duty that I share with my friends. I’ve spoken to Celestia and Luna about it before, and yes, I don’t have much in the way of traditional royal duties. Sure, I oversee and prepare the odd event, but nothing regular. I want to take on my fair share of responsibilities, but I can’t afford to make needless mistakes.” She fixed him with a glare. “That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to learn.”

Blueblood was silent as he walked, judging her with his eyes. Then, he relented with a nod. “There may be hope for you yet.”

She blinked, taken aback. “Um... Thank you?”

He started to walk again, not even waiting for her to catch up.

Author's Note:

Edited from 7/11/2016 for grammar and extra words on 29/11/2019

Comments

[Ogopogo]

The delay of this chapter was due to a lot of things. Partly university midterms and projects, but also due to reworking this chapter a bit from its initial state. It kept getting longer and longer, and if I wanted to cut it at a reasonable length, it would have ended a bit disjointed (nevermind it seemed to ramble on). Part of me isn't entirely happy leaving at this point, because the interpretation people may have of it may come across wrong until later chapters. But, it's easy to keep going back an editing and at a point it has to stand on its own, so...

[Gizmo Gear]

7703618 Its all cool man!! It was a good spot to end off at. And I look forward to reading the next chapter that comes out!!!

[Mix-up]

I think it's an interesting story so far I pose to see more soon.