75 - Things Change
"Did you learn the location of their light?" His superior gazed on him evenly, vision flickering just faintly in its holographic nature.
"Though I have no authority to declare it myself." Gregor raised a hand, clutching it into a fist as he did so. "They are Innocent. Their darkness is, at best, a dull grey, and even their surliest were creatures that sought out comradery and sang the praises to the saints and the Pancreator with clear voices. I would need learn more of their adults, but some hints were given as to who serves as these children's priests."
"And they will not oppose their attendance?" The elder priest raised a suspicious brow. "Do they not cling tenaciously to the religion they already have?"
"They see nothing in what I have shown them that causes a conflict. I will now confess, I did leave some portions out of the telling. I foresaw no advantage in straying into matters of violence and strife, for these were things they barely knew."
"Are they not willing to defend what they consider right?"
Gregor shrugged expansively, his hands going wide. "They have managed this without taking up sword and shield. Their great champion is armed only with optimism, and their magic."
"Have you learned more of this magic, be it of theurgic, psychic, or sinful origin?"
"None present were endowed with any magic, save the dragons' ability to fly and to produce flames." He knew not of the hippogriff's shapechanging artifact. "So that information was not to be had. Have you decided on the merit of their souls?"
"I do not yet have the information I require. Take measure of their priests, of these children, and the rest. Surely they are not one and the same." The image suddenly collapsed, the call ended without so much as a goodbye.
Spike worked a rough bit of cloth over the blade, polishing it meticulously, but his expression was that of doubt. "So, uh... I've helped Twilight clean things before, how is this any different?"
"On that matter it is clear." He gestured a flat hand towards the blade being worked on. "You will never own a library, no matter how many books you sort. This simply isn't something you desire. But a blade? You need to know how to care for one."
Spike paused a moment, looking between the rag and the blade. "Do... you do this?"
"Every day," stated Laud with confidence. "A warrior's weapon is an extension of themself, and if it is not ready, neither is the warrior. A knight that displays themselves with sullied weapons is casting shame on themself and the people they represent."
"Ohhhh." With renewed vigor, Spike set himself to vigorously working the blade until it was gleaming and bright as the day it was finished being forged. "Ta da! Cleaning is something I know how to do."
"This I see. Now, as a reward, I shall endow you with a blade." Spike's eyes went wide, full of hope and awe. This dimmed when a wooden sword came out instead of a steel one. "We will both be using wooden weapons in practice, until you have reached a level that you can cross steel with me safely. Real weapons cause real injuries, even among the skilled at times. You lack armor and training, so we start here."
Spike accepted the wooden blade that was made for his size, holding its hilt firmly and giving it a few test swings through the air. "Are we practicing with it now?"
"If you feel up for it." He backed away several paces. "The first will be the easiest; all I ask is that you strike me as if to kill me."
Spike blinked blankly at that. "Uh... that's a little... much isn't it?"
"If you fell me, then that will be my own failing, especially with that practice sword." He raised his own wooden weapon. "Go on, put me down and prove you are already beyond my teaching."
Spike only knew of blades what comics had taught him, which wasn't much. He charged forward with a mighty cry, sure that shouting was part of the process. His vision suddenly began to swim as pain lanced down from his head.
Laud had bopped him one on the head as Spike rushed in. "Do not assume your opponent will simply let you walk up to them."
Spike rubbed over the sore spot as he backed away. "Shouldn't I wear a helmet or something?"
"You may, but a strike like that will hurt much the same. Don't let it happen in the first place." He lifted his blade, flat with the ground. "Care to try again?"
Spike came in with a curving and careful approach, circling Laud with his own blade raised. When he was close enough, Laud moved to bop him, but Spike moved his own sword in the way. There was the matter of size difference and a lack of skill, causing his sword to be bashed aside.
"Better," praised Laud. "There is a skill to a proper parry."
"You're twice my size!" He threw up his free hand before grabbing his sword with both for a better grip.
"Which is exactly why trying to stop me directly is fruitless. You will not win if it is a combat of muscle, so you will have to be skillful instead. Swing at me. Go ahead, I will allow it." He lowered his sword just a little.
Spike looked skeptical a moment, but moved in. When he wasn't swatted at for his trouble, he made his swing at the seemingly-still Laud. Sword met sword, Laud reacting to the swing, but not directly beating it aside, instead displaying how it could be caught and redirected away from himself in a parry.
"Huh." Spike swung from a different angle, but it was turned away just as easily. "So that's what the guard's for..." He noticed the blade would slide down at times, bouncing off the guard instead of hitting a hand or fingers.
"Remember, in a real fight, you will do what you can to put the other bastard down before they can do the same to you." He gestured with the sword, bobbing it lightly. "Go on, again."
"This isn't a real fight though, right?" He went for a low strike, away from where Laud's blade seemed to easily reach. His mentor ducked back in a little hop, blades not even touching in favor of avoiding the strike.
"You should assume it is, or the training is blunted." He suddenly lunged, sword moving for a stab. Spike squealed in surprise even as he tried to do as he was shown, but the skill was not there yet, and he was prodded right in the chest. "You are dead. I will mourn you, my student."
Spike snorted at that. "Yeah yeah. I'm not done yet." Though his blade was at the ready, he grabbed with a freed hand, grabbing Laud's close pants and wrenching as he gave a flap, the combination of forces just enough to unbalance Laud a moment.
The sparring was on. The afternoon faded away with the two clashing and meeting, neither willing to give up.
"Pardon?" Applejack looked up at the human that towered over her. "Don't reckon ah understand the question."
"What... virtues do you impart on your students?" asked Gregor with a kind smile. "What are the values you seek to impress on them?"
"Oh, hm, that's a good question." She raised a hoof to her chin. "Ya see, ah try to show a few things. An honest day's work is always worth it. Workin' wit' your friends is even better than by yerself, and there ain't many lies worth the trouble they cause."
"Worthy lessons." Gregor considered the farming teacher and possible priest before himself. "And who taught you those things?"
"Well shoot..." She sat down and tapped at her chin with a thoughtful frown. "Ah kinda learned that as I went, why I'm teachin' it now, so ponies don't have t' do it the hard way like ah did. Huh, never really thought it through before. Gregor, right?"
"That is correct. Nice to meet you, Applejack." He dipped his head lightly before turning towards the school. "Have the other teachers similar opinions on this matter?"
Applejack considered her friends and their upbringings. "Hmmm, well...Maybe one little exception." She pointed up into the sky. "Rainbow Dash learned her self-confidence, sometimes to an extreme, from her parents. They believe in her, and she believes in herself. It's kinda sweet, if annoyin' at times."
"Is this a thing she now instructs?" Self-confidence classes? It wasn't an impossible idea, but it did strike him as queer.
"Funny ya mention that... In parts, yes, she tries to show students to have more faith in themself that they can get somethin' done, even if it looks scary or too hard. She also tries to show how even the most terrifyin' ah times is a good place, arguably one of the best, to have friends around t' make it a little less scary."
Applejack suddenly pointed at Gregor. "Now, pardon me, but what brings this on? These are mighty funny questions for ya to be askin', seein' as I 'magine you're not lookin' for a school."
"I am endeavoring to understand your people better," replied Gregor quite honestly. "Do you all simply find your way blindly?"
"Reckon that ain't true, seein' as here ah am fixin' that." She pointed towards the school. "That's the point."
"What of... adults in need of guidance?"
"The school ain't much for adults none, but we have helped them." She turned to the castle. "You met Starlight?"
"I can't say I have, unfortunately."
"She was a right naughty mare, until we found her and brought her around, now she's one of tha good ones, even helps out at the school." She nodded softly as she remembered the tale. "She may not wanna talk about it none, but go ahead and ask her, she may."
"I may just do that. Thank you for your time." He clasped his hands together and bowed gently. "You are a kind soul."
"Ah shucks, doin' mah best." She tipped her hat and began to walk past him. "You take care of yerself."
"Where do I find guidance?" Mayor Mare raised a brow at the visitor from the stars. "I have a duty, and I try to remain true to it. Before I became mayor, hmm... I was taught many things in school, and looked to Princess Celestia as a role model. I can only hope I am half the leader she is."
Gregor could not help but smile a little wider. A hint? "Is Princess Twilight Sparkle related to Princess Celestia?" There weren't normally many other ways for there to be multiple princesses in one kingdom.
"Not that I am aware of, hmm. No. If they are, the relation is quite distant indeed." She pointed up at Canterlot, high on the mountain. "Princess Celestia has ruled over us for longer than I was alive, you see, and Twilight... She is younger than I am. Why, some ponies wonder if she will endure forever."
What? Gregor touched the tips of his fingers against one another, one hand to the next. "Unaging?"
"I've seen very old paintings of her," assured Mayor Mare. "They are unchanged, save for before she gained her flowing mane and tail. I imagine only violence would change that, Harmony forbid! She has watched over us and here we are."
"Would... you say she represents the virtues you live by?"
"Well, let's see... She is Kind, Generous, Honest, Loyal... She loves a good joke to raise spirits. She certainly has magic in abundance... So, yes, I imagine she is a lovely paragon." Mayor Mare nodded, half-convincing herself of the thought even as she said it. "And she raises the sun."
Gregor resisted the many expressions that wanted to emerge. "Pardon?"
"She raises the sun, every day. She allows us to have light." Mayor Mare gestured up at the sun far above.
Gregor had found the source of light, though he had not expected it to be so incredibly literal.
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Let's just hope he doesn't make the mistake of branding Luna their "source of darkness". Bad relations lie down that path indeed.
Gregor shall praise the sun!
I read Go, Spike, Go as Go, Cry, Co and immediately thought of Celestia as Overlord.
Oh dear, Gregor might be, but his boss is definitely going to be going full on Heresy at that news, even if off call.
I endorse squire Spike.
Edit: Also, Gregor asks interesting questions. What are my values? Where did I learn them? I would probably have to go away and think about that for a bit.
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I don't even know where I got half my values. I think random cartoons?
Hmm. More please.
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My family, I think? Like Applejack, it's just... stuff I picked up as I grew up.
Yeah, when you stop and think about it, it can be really difficult to pinpoint where your values come from.
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There are too many things that I would consider values, I only know that I will try to be "good", TV, my older sister and the rest of the adults of my family have taught me that much...
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I can honestly say my values do not come from one place. My parents, teachers and the media I consumed all helped me. "Wisdom is where you find it" was a great quote I got from a Ninja Turtles cartoon. Also Fred Rodgers, watching his show had a really positive effect thanks to its messages and how much of a freaking Saint the man ways.
Children need a wide array of influences, and involvement from parental figures to really form as people. So many people are terrible because growing up their experiences where limited or their parents where uninvolved with raising them.
Interesting, the Church harboring a stance of "guilty unless proven innocent". It's cunningly presented, but they definitely keep doubt at the forefront.
Let's hope all the, shall we say, excitement, Gregor has imbued will calm down in the presence of a not-actually-a-goddess, despite the technically-accurate descriptions she's been attributed.
Hmmm, should Luna intercept them...
Keep going! ;)
it is not that ponies are good it is just that they as a herd follow celestia.
The so called friendship school is really just an introduction to the youth of how they should act to please their new princess.
Bummer
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Worse, let us pray he and his order doesn't try to claim her to be a false god pretender. But then again, Sun into Gate, problem solved.
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Well, in both Celestia and Luna's favor, neither one claims to be a god. In fact, if I remember MLP lore correctly, they assumed their duties of raising and lowering the sun and moon from the unicorns, who had performed the task before them.
Given the existence of artifacts in their world that can control the movements of the sun (the rings of scorchero, and presumably others), apparently the natives consider moving celestial bodies is more of a mundane matter than either divine or infernal.
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But what the natives say or feel or care about doesn't matter. It only matters what the Church believes.
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Power Rangers and Yogi Bear, I'm sure.
Spike doesn't need to earn his armor, he was born with it!
I think a lot of my values come indirectly from the philosophy I studied in college. It taught me to really examine what I believe and why I believe it.
Heh, that's a good line : )
Intriguing story so far.
Politics and religion are not what I expected to be enjoying in pony fiction, but these damned colorful horses on this site have made it their purpose to grab me out of my comfort zone. And be glad that they did somehow.
I love how these men of the cloth are trying to shoehorn their conception of religion, with equestrian Harmony magic.