This story is a sequel to Lectern’s New and Used Books: Fall Semester
A Twin Canterlots story—first in the Brass Ring series
If it had been just the prosthetic right arm, Rose Brass might have been certified fit for duty—but when the docs also concluded her left eye couldn’t be saved, that was that. The army captain found herself down-checked and retired to the permanent disability list. Without any other direction, she moved back to the city where she’d grown up. Now, thanks to the kindness of strangers, she’s washed up at the doors of an organization dedicated to assisting veterans just like her.
Rose visits VSCC some fourteen years before “Rainbow Rocks”—about twelve and a half years before MLPFIM begins.
Hit the “Popular Stories” bar the evening of posting, 29 June 2021, woo!
VSCC - Veteran's Services of Cuyahoga County - not completely fictional ...
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I should have known there’d be at least one real organization using that abbreviation!
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Well any county starting with 'C', or City ('VS, City of...') ... quite a few combinations there ...
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In this case, of course, the second C is for “City”. The first C I think should be fairly clear, given the setting.
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Only if the official name is 'Canterlot City' (see NYC) otherwise the 'City of Canterlot' also uses the same initials ...
Very nice look back. Using familiar faces to both establish time period and give Rose the help she can't bear to ask for* was a brilliant touch. Jumping around the timeline really helps convey a sense of her own drifting, uncertain identity and place in society at the time. Thank you for this.
*I don't mean to imply she's too proud to ask for it. only that, as Mr. Lectern noted, she can't recognize that she's even in a position to do so.
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The jumping in time was intended to accomplish exactly that—Rose is in pretty terrible shape during this whole period—though it’s not quite as chaotic as it might seem at first glance. The narrative does switch back and forth between two threads, but each thread proceeds rigorously in chronological order. It’s just that the flashbacks thread ends shortly before the present-time thread begins with her sitting in front of Lectern’s desk.
That isn’t the only narrative trick I worked in. Rose’s name is never mentioned in any of the flashbacks until Pear Butter asks for it, which took some careful writing to avoid using she or her for any other character in those scenes. The namelessness emphasizes her crisis of identity, her depression, and, as with any individual, her being the center of her personal universe. It ends only when someone truly reaches out to her beyond a chance encounter, someone who affects her on a deep level.
Also, the scene of Rose alone in her little flat is filled with a great deal more symbolism than I normally indulge in, particularly the psychological ceiling height (most obviously), the use of darkness and light, and her choice of hand when picking up the note and flipping the light switch.
I’m not sure I could have written this before the experience of writing Three-act Play, because in that story Rose developed enormously, far more than she did in Amphorae and Virga combined. Moreover, working with, and learning from, Scampy and taking our discussions from raw conversation to finished prose was an enormously illuminating process.
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sounds like you have enjoyed growth in your writing and understanding of your own character!
This... has been wonderful to read, and as an Army spouse, I never tire of reading about Rose. This is legitimately inspiring. I've been meaning to get back to running... Little too cold now, but come spring, why not?
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Thanks so much for the compliments!
Now the final chapter is posted, Rose’s main arc, Brass Ring, is complete—but she’ll continue as a member of the ensemble cast in The Campus and, when it begins, Off Campus.
Glad I finally got back to this one. Outstanding character study as we see Rose rebuild herself to become the pillar so many others needed. Thank you for it.
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And thank you for the kind comments!
It really did bring a sense of closure to write this. And it makes Rose’s story the longest, in terms of both word count and elapsed in-universe time. Between the beginning of Rose Brass and the opening of The Campus is just about thirty years!
When you said that Rose Brass was a prequel to Amphorae, I thought it’d be by a few months, maybe a year. But wow, this really does feel a lifetime apart, and in a way I guess it is. But it’s still our much-beloved Captain Brass. In that very ‘Dave’ kind of way, it’s clear you’ve used the time difference to great effect here, and I adore how you’ve weaved in your own interpretation of the less fleshed-out bits of the canon via the Apple and Light(?) families.
Bloody hell, for a side story you really do throw us in at the deep end. A flashback it may have been, but the exacting detail of the introductory scene put me right there, and the snap back to the present day… well, in that brief intro, you perfectly encapsulate bot why Rose regarded Lectern’s ‘request’ with more than a little scepticism, and why Lectern made it in the first place.
I don’t know why, but for as brief as this exchange is, I absolutely adore it – I can perfectly picture the no-bullshit nurse saying that in immovable deadpan, and the even-less-bullshit Rose giving as good as she’s getting. But there’s an underlying solemnity behind it as well – it doesn’t take much to understand why Redheart’s not a fan of firearms just from those three words. And in a way, it’s nice to see Rose’s nearly dumbfounded response when Redheart expands upon that afterwards. Rose’s narrative voice mentioned Redheart speaking with “self-righteous disapproval” but I couldn’t help but notice how Rose’s inner monologue carried a certain air of, well, self-righteous approval. Rose feels a bit more fiery in Rose Brass, a bit more raw. Not just in terms of her attitude, but also her proximity to the Army (both people and, well, events).
YOU ARE MY FAVOURITE PERSON FOR GIVING THE TEMPERATURE IN BOTH AMERICAS AND EUROPES (and including that very militaristic insistence on unambiguity – nice!)
All in all, between this and Three Act Play, it really feels like you’ve fleshed Rose out into her own character; she’s no longer just the means to another character’s end, and she seems to fit right into that perfect fanfiction niche of being a deeper and more serious look at a character, while still remaining ‘universe-respectful’. Lovely stuff.
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After Three-act Play I realized I definitely needed to visit the events that made Rose who and what she is in the rest of the series—and I had more material with which to do so. At least one review of Amphorae dinged it for being “bare bones”, though Scampy rebutted that by pointing out the story was just what it needed to be and no more. This is what she called the “explosition” story!
To be honest, the presence of Twi’s and AJ’s parents grew out of the site rule a story must be relevant! It took a lot of thought to work in canon characters, most of whom are small children at the time, and avoid getting the story banned. I did my best to make a virtue of that necessity and overall I’m pleased with the results.
Rose starts the story as a real mess, and it behooved me to treat her with the same respect I did the Dazzlings and Wallflower. And yeah, at this earlier, younger stage of her life she’s more of a firebrand than she is as a woman well into middle age. As for her self-righteous approval, I simply drew on my own love of shooting to inform her inner monologue—that’s exactly how I feel about it. Moreover, it was an early lesson on the fact other people don’t see the world the same way she does, and they may even have a point.
The US military uses SI units vastly more than the general public does, which is part of why the whole bit about temperatures was included. The other part was just to illustrate a quirk of the spirit thermometer itself, a touch of whimsy and descriptive color—and yes, to accommodate folks who don’t use Freedom Units. Fun fact: I have that exact thermometer, which dates back to the . . . 1980s, I think? It hangs from the military-surplus harness that carries my hiking gear. It used to have a teeny-tiny compass glued into a recess at its foot, but the glue gave out decades ago and the compass has long since disappeared.
Rose has always been a fully rounded person in my head, but it did take Three-act Play to draw out a lot more than was needed for Amphorae. Once I had that material, it would have been criminal not to develop it further!