The Princess, The Painter, and the Paintbrush (Private: ATTN Steeleagle)

[Pretzelparty]

 

"Just calm down pressy... you can do this." The mare stared at her canvas, her intense stare looking like it could burn a whole through it. Her paintbrush engulfed in her magical aura was slowly lowered down on to her canvas and slowly made a few movements and was then set down. The cream colored unicorn glared at the canvas, inpsecting the image she'd put upon it thoroughly before she grit her teeth and shouted almost loud enough for the entire block in Canterlot to hear...

 

"ABSOLUTELY, BLOODY USELESS!" Followed by a canvas being launched from a window into a street where it nearly collided with a Mime performing for the crowd. Thankfully nopony was injured and the freckled mare who threw it cried out, "Sorry! I'll clean that up in a sec!" The spellbound headquarters was empty save for Pressy's little art nook where a sleeping fruit bat was hanging from one of the rafters above. Ice storm was out on a date, Moondancer was out on some mission for the guild, with her coltfriend of course... And here I am on my lonesome, this stinks. Thought the now thoroughly irritated mare, she sighed and made her way down to the hall, such a big space... it was a shame to see it so empty of ponies after that splendid open house. 

 

The Mare galloped out and quickly gathered up the wreckage of her canvas, tossing a few bits the mime's way as a form of apology before pushing the pile of former artwork to the trash area and then going back into the hall to try and ease her nerves. "I miss Java..." she said to herself before sighing deeply and looking up at the celing and imagining the sky past it, the stallion was currently busy with his airship and she didn't want to get in the way of his passion... but more importantly she didn't want to expose him to herself when she was stressed out by repeated artistic 'failures' in her mind.

 

So instead, Pressy put on one some music to calm herself down. She put on something a certain hippy pony might enjoy and began to enjoy herself as she let the music flow through her, she spun and, twirled, kicked, and dli her way across the hall a smile eventually working it's way over her face as she felt her worries flying away from her mind.

[SteelEagle]

 

“Did I come at a bad time?”

Twilight had an odd habit of catching her friends at some of their weaker personal moments. It seemed to be a special skill of hers that, if she could ever perfect, would be the most annoying capability she had. She caught Pinkie Pie when she had a stomach ache, Applejack while she was cleaning herself, Rarity during a rogue moment of mane experimentation, and Fluttershy when she was slightly overwhelmed by a horde of rabbits. The list could go on but the point was made, and first witnessing a piece of art flying out of the hall and then as she made her way inside Pressy dancing to some music in an unusual fashion would make the list. Well, she supposed there were worse things she could be doing. Rainbow's weak moment was best kept secret.

And secrets- secrets were why she was here. The art of magic required a lot of unlocking the secrets of the old world, a certain inquisitiveness and curiosity tempered by experience and the realization that you were often stepping into a world that you weren't ready for. Twilight still encountered this despite all of her power. It might even be all that power that made her extra cautious. A simple mistake on her part could cause untold damage to others, and she was not a mare who liked to do such things. But she was a mare who loved magic, and that love meant she had to push forward anyway. And that meant she had to be extra cautious, even when some of her magic school colleagues would say she was more than prepared to handle what was likely to happen.

 

And that was why she was here. She was dealing with something slightly out of her wheel house. If it was pure magic, she could handle it. But it wasn't. The Paintbrush of Paschersack was a magical artifact of the old world near Hoofenheim, rumored to hold the potential to create living art and perform magical artistry never thought possible. The magic of art expressed with aether- powerful and incredible. But not something she was intimately familiar with. Art was a world beyond her and while she appreciated and adored it, she did so in the knowledge that it was not something she was capable of doing effectively. This naturally fed into her cautious nature as she sought out a pony who could help her- a magical mare, an artist, a friend: Presteza.

Twilight smirked as she entered the room, levitating a biscuit to her friend from her saddlebag. “I mean, if you need the privacy to get your groove on I could leave. You really look like you're having a lot of....fun?”

[Pretzelparty]

 

The painter practically leapt out of her skin as a familiar voice suddenly spoke up behind her, ofrtunately she didn't really leap -out- of her skin, but she sure as sugar did do quite  a jump! Off the table she fell and landed on another nearby table, with the force of impact tipped upward and launched a bowl of fruit in the air before it's contents landed and on her head in a very neat order. The bowl it seemed was holding some ornamental fruit that landed on the painter's head six times before the bowl landed on her head like a hat!

 

Presteza paused for a moment and started giggling, "Hahaha!" she laughed as she pulled herself to her hooves and dusted herself off. "Sel blimey, ya scared me! How've ya been Twilight? I haven't seen ya since Magic camp I think... also s'fine! Ya could even join me if ya like!" She said before eagerly snatching the biscuit from the air, "Also, thanks fer the snack!" 

 

This was such a surprise! The last thing Presteza had expected to happen today was a visit from the princess of friendship, she figured twilight would be off with her main circle of friends learning lessons and recording them and stuff, but no way was this painter gonna look a gift princess in the mouth. The creamy coated mare levitated the fruit bowl off her head and put all the fake fruit back into place before heading over to the record player and turning it down a smidge, "So what can I do fer ya?"

[SteelEagle]

Twilight had to try to withhold the empire's worth of laughter she wanted to unleash at the sight of what transpired. Presteza for all of her nobility and skill most acutely resembled a comedy short when startled. A small litany of hilarious disasters cascaded to create an image of Presteza on top of a table with a bowl of fruit perched on her head like one of those dancers from the Gallopocus Islands. In short order she was back on the ground and recovering from the silliness of the jump, turning down the music, thanking her for the snack, and making Twilight consider the successful magic camp that had first brought them together. She had showed a lot of natural talent and while nopony would excuse her for one of the most powerful unicorns in the land, there was no doubt she was powerful in her own way. And today, her way would prove incredibly important to Princess Twilight and indeed all of Equestria.

“I've been well, Presteza. Nice to see magic camp hasn't changed your creativity at all! Though to be honest I expected a little bit more painting and a little less dancing,” Twilight smirked as she tried to help levitate things back into place, “not that I'm complaining, however. I haven't seen moves like that since my last birthday. Reminds me that I need to boogie down sometime soon,” Twilight let slip and a moment later started moving. After a few moments of looking like a wounded animal she looked up at Presteza with bright, eager eyes, “did you like my dance? I think I dance really, really well,” Twilight was more than happy to believe what her mother said about her dancing. Well, her mother told her she was great at many things, and Twilight WAS great at many things. Mothers never lied!

“I came here for a rather important cause, however. I am actually looking for a magical artifact, this one being the Paintbrush of Paschersack. Old world item, likely near Hoofenheim. I can't think of anypony else I'd rather have with me than you because of your elite talents that correspond to what we need to do with it. Pressy, would you like to come with me on a bit of an adventure?”

[Pretzelparty]

 

"Oh, c'mon, Twilight!" Said the excited painterpony, "I'm pretty sure we both know theres no need fer us ta be one trick ponies! I'm tryin' ta learn all types o' art..." There was an awkward pause for a moment as Pressy let her statement hang in the air for a moment before admitting, "Also... I kinda stressed myself out when I couldn't get a piece I was workin' on right... I almost hit a mime with the canvas I threw out the window a few seconds ago..."she laughed somewhat awkwardly. Once twilight voiced her lack of dancing lately in her life, the alicorn decided to show off a dance that Pressy had never seen before. It wasn't the most dignified or graceful of dances but it definitely had character to it. "That was wonderful, Twily!"

 

Once her purple friend had finished she sat down and took a slightly more serious tone as she told her why she'd come here. In all honesty, Pressy, figured she'd be here to talk to Moondancer or something seeing as she was more of a magic expert than she was. All that this pony needed to hear was the word 'adventure' and immediately a grin spread over her face; an adventure with a princess! This was gonna be awesome! 

 

"I'd love to!" Shouted the excited mare as she pounced on the princess pulling her into a hug before letting her go and thinking, "And did ya say the paintbrush o' Paschersack?... my old art teacher used ta talk about that. I came up with a whole bunch of theories on how it's supposed to be able to make painted images into three dimensional entities... This is gonna be so cool!"

[SteelEagle]

 

It was true. It was imperative to any real scholar or lover of magic to expand your knowledge and abilities, so that you may eventually be able to dig deeper into the mysteries that surrounded them. In this case Pressy was going to dance more often. Well, whatever floated her boat. Twilight always felt better about dipping into a few pools when she had mastered at least one swimming technique rather than trying out several techniques at once. In any case, the dancing that Twilight displayed earned a positive response. That was rare! Aside from her mother, nopony had nice things to say about her dancing. Usually it was some form of desperate plea for her to never do it again. Either everypony else was a harsh critic or she didn't need to get her dancing reviews from Presteza.

And then they were onto the more exciting element of the the actual reason she was here. The Princess had no doubt it would intrigue Presteza. She was an adventurer at heart trapped in the nobility with the limitations and responsibilities that entailed. And that was good, because she had good cause to bring Pressy along and she seemed more than eager. Good! Eager was how Twilight preferred things. And- UGGH. Big hug! She was more than excited to go on this, it seemed. And she knew what the item was, or at least the theory. Hopefully the reality wouldn't disappoint or prove too much, action dependent. Twilight casually teleported just a foot or so away, getting out of the hug and into the more comfortable position of...not having somepony draped over her. “That's great to hear! I was hoping we could get started on this quickly, too. Is there anything you need to do before we go? I have some resources lined up for us, but if you wanted to take care of anything, now would be the time.”

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

“That's great to hear! I was hoping we could get started on this quickly, too. Is there anything you need to do before we go? I have some resources lined up for us, but if you wanted to take care of anything, now would be the time.”

 

Pressy was a bit disappointed to have her hug dodged but she should have figured Twilight wasn't the type of pony who enjoyed being hugged regularly. The painter simply smiled and straightened herself up before looking over to a hat-rack across the room and levitating her hat to her head and nodded. "This is all I need... oh hold on a sec." The mare whistled sharply and soon a brilliant purple blur descended from the rafters. As soon as the violet object ceased darting about and then fluttered in front of the painter's face. "Fresco! I'm gonna leave a note so Moondancer knows where I went. You take care o' the place while I'm away and I'll be back b'fore ya know it." 

The little chiropteran squeaked cheerfully and then looked back to the princess behind him and squeaked with what seemed to be Awe. Soon Twilight found a small fruit bat was now hanging off her horn and then after squeaking with glee he fluttered back up to the ceiling and hung upside down from the rafters above.

 

The mare looked over her person and looked through the saddlebag at her side. Lucky paintbrush memento from mentor? check! inkpouch? check! assortment of pigments? check. Snacks? check! 

 

"Okay! I'm ready ta go! Lead on McHoof!" she said with a playful and excited voice, her tone cracking slightly in her accent and excitement.

[SteelEagle]

 

Twilight was always pleased with how many of her friends had unusual manners of pets, as opposed to the normal gang of cute rabbits, cats, and dogs. The whole pet enterprise- so exciting! So much to do with them. She technically had two pets, since Spike counted in some census recordings as one. But a bat? That was a new one. And a friendly one at that! Most bats she dealt with were the orchard destroying kind. It was always good to see examples of species like that which bucked the trend. “Why hello there little guy! Such a pleasure to meet you!” Twilight said with an earnest smile . After a few seconds it flew away, and it was soon time to make due with what they had. Which was good, because where they were going they might not be able to bring anything with them except their wits and will. Nothing big, anyway. Saddlebags might survive. They'd soon find out either way.

“Good to hear! I have everything lined up. First stop- we're taking an airship. Not one of the big ones, however. Something of- well, I'm pretty excited to show you. I spent considerable effort on it and if it works, it could revolutionize Equestrian air travel!” Twilight said excitedly, nearly pronking in place as she led her friend out. They still had much to discuss. “So, I'm guessing an artist of your stature- and somepony with a love of adventure- must know a little something of the Paintbrush. And while we're on the subject, have you ever seen this paper before? Even in a book?” Twilight said,levitating a well-preserved...and blank appearing...piece of canvas, which had an oddly shifting aura of blue light subtly shading the corners elegantly. “One of a kind, of course.”

[Pretzelparty]

 

The painter giggled as she saw the excitement apparent in her friend's face ... and nearly bouncing body language. The equally enlivened mare eagerly followed behind the princess as she continued to speak and lead the way to this airship she was talking about. If this was as awesome as twilight was saying then she'd have to introduce her to Java some time.... even though the thought brought up a tinge of worry in the back of her mind.

 

It was then that Twilight brought out something that made pressy's eyes figuratively turn into saucers! "Oh sweet Celestia!" The mare looked over the piece of canvas, "Where did you find thi-- oh wot am I sayin' yer a princess! you've gotta have all kinds o' resources! Anyway ta answer yer question, yes! Once or twice... my old art teacher had a painting that used paper like this. Supposedly if it's used by a pony with a talent for painting, sketching, et cetera it could be used fer a whole bunch of neat things... the most interesting of which being creating living images with a will of their own! Seriously, how cool is that?!" 

 

The mare looked ready to burst at least until she passed by that mime from earlier glaring at her, her only response being an embarassed grin.

[SteelEagle]

 

Twilight knew she had come to the right mare! Pressy was mostly right. The Papers of Coltdon were rumored to be imbued my their unicorns with the ability to come to life and be of their own free will. And these rumors were mostly right! They could come to life, though the will aspect was hotly debated. If that was the case, then the Papers were very cruel devices indeed. But regardless of whether they could develop a will of their own or were simply reflections of characters created by the painter, they were mesmerizing all the same. Coltdon itself had made only a few hundred such papers over six hundred years ago, so they were all exceptionally rare. Even a simple sketch on one could fetch obscene prices, but this was not like any of the other papers.

“Very close. This is not just one of the Papers of Coltdon, this is THE Paper of Coltdon! The original, thought lost to a fire for centuries. And then...well, I'll have to tell you. It is all very exciting stuff, and the Paper is the least important and exciting element of it all,” Twilight said with that pep in her step only growing. Finally, an artist who wasn't morose! And to think she had been concerned when she had arrived. This day was getting better and better. No matter. With Pressy and Twilight ready, the Princess made no joke of speed and in great haste hurried to the airship she had devised for travel. And what a nice little wonder it was.

It was so...small. It was maybe six ponies long and two wide. There was a small six bladed prop in the back, and one small door. Twilight's horn lit and the door opened.
“Pretty neat, right? A small two person airship! It will make transportation in such a manner open to everypony, not just the rich. Of course there are a few things I have to work on, but it is a nice invention if I do say so myself!”

[Pretzelparty]

 

The painter's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. The paper that could create images that mimicked life was the LEAST exciting element of this adventure?! How could this be?! What if she had a heart attack from the overexposure to the amazing that was sure to be awaiting them?... oh well; Nothing Ventured, nothing gained! At that thought Pressy's grin grew twice as wide as she followed the hurrying alicorn, only skidding to a halt as they reached their transport.

"Oh, Wow!" Said the mare in a voice of hushed awe. She stepped up the to the Airship and place a hoof to the wooden exterior, "this is amazin'! Oh my coltfriend actually may be able ta help you with some of those things if you're looking for a helping hoof in that." 

"Oh um is there a pilot's seat 'r somethin' ya need ta sit in?"

 

 

[SteelEagle]

"Oh? What is his name?" Twilight asked as she entered, wondering who this colt could be. She always wanted feedback on her inventions. She entered in and squeezed by. When a pony entered, they would find a rather cramped entrance. There was a table with two seats, cabinets under the seats and behind them as well. Next to each seat at about eye level were two bunk beds laid end to end, so that a sleeping pony might be able to lay and keep their eyes on the door. In the back of the airship was a single stall, and next to the small a very small, two-piece kitchen. The front had an cockpit with a series of gauges, and on the wall was a series of even more gauges and whatnots. All together the space was hardly larger, in total, than the average kitchen. Six ponies long, two ponies wide, and most of that was mechanical.

"No pilot seat needed. Not now, anywhere. This is a prototype arcane-steam two pony airship that uses basic aetheral guidance. We have a small coal power station. In order to fill it up, just do this," Twilight opened up a panel on the wall, revealing a coal chute. She then opened up a section of the floor, and connected the chute to it. Once connected, a lever appeared next to the coal chute. She pumped it twice and and stopped, closing everything. "Always two pumps, that is all it can take. After that, we get to the serious work. We use aetheral batteries to not only regulate and boost power, but to help the guidance system as well," she pulled open another panel, revealing a small selection of twelve cylindrical objects that glowed a dull blue. She then walked over the front end of the cockpit and put it in a slot which sat at the base of a series of gauges and readouts. It glowed a deep purple and then finally white, and the gauges started moving.

"Now we set the guidance. Every location in the world has an aetheral signature. That is how teleportation works, after all. Relocate mass from one area to the other using the aether. All you're doing is doing so instantly using an aethereal bridge. This folllows the same principle. Tell the guidance system where to go in the aether, and the ship will go there as long as it has power unless you override control. I need to find a way to make this step easy to use," she said, manipulating several gears levers, switches, and gauges at once, a little ticker tape popping out of a small machine to the side. She consulted it several times before smiling. "And there! Destination set. Barring a disruption, we should fly to the disruption without getting any more hooves on than the coal chute and batteries every so often. And once I pull this lever, we're off," she took a deep breath, clearly excited. 

Notably, she had moved maybe six steps this whole time, the space around her so small.
"I know this is a really small space, but I hope to make further prototypes more efficient. Ready for an adventure?

[Pretzelparty]

Presteza smiled, "'Is name's Javasun. He's an awesome engineer and he's made all sorts of neat things sorta like this." The mare smiled slightly dreamily before bringing herself out of it as soon as Twilight spoke the word 'adventure'. The painter  eagerly got into the small vessel, the two excited mare's practically muzzle to muzzle as she spoke up, with no hint of awkwardness due to their close proximity, "Does Sapphire Shores have insanely elaborate and crazy music numbers?!" She asked with a cheeky grin on her face.

"What're ya even askin' fer? Let's hit that lever!" Just like that, Pressy's horn lit and closed the door behind them!  

[SteelEagle]

That was simple enough. There was no formal guidance needed anymore- she had put everything in. Confines were small but it was a great price to pay for
making such travel convenient and cheap to the masses. The potential was there: Almost anypony could get something like this and go wherever they wanted.
All she had to do was work out a few of the kinks in the machinery and see if anypony wanted to mass produce it. And here Presteza was, almost as excited as
Twilight was about the possibilities of this amazing adventure in front of them.

"Okay! Go take a seat while I get us in motion," she said, excited at seeing it in action. She pulled the lever and the ship immediately kicked into gear, several
cranking sounds and a low hum ending with it moving into the air. Twilight trotted over to the series of displays, examining them. Pressure was good. The
location was in and the aether was manipulated correctly. Everything was functioning right. The speed was perfect. Good. Good! She sighed, but not one of
relief, but of excitement. She trotted over to the open seat and sat across from Pressy as the ship started to pick up speed.
"I'm so excited!"

[Pretzelparty]

Presteza eagerly trotted over to her seat and thought a few moments, "If I remember right... The paintbrush was said to be able to influence emotional states of other beings in addition to being to temporarily create 'living art'. I can see why yer eager ta find it with all this W.R.A.I.T.H. nonsense goin' on... speakin' o' which I was a bit worried about you when I heard you'd been attacked during that whole raid thing... yer okay, right?" The painter's voice lost a hint of it's usual excitement, the tone in her cracking voice now sounding more like worry. 

There were some downsides to having a creative mind that tends to overthink things and frustrate. Presteza could already picture several ways an artifact that could do what the paintbrush was capable of. "Some said the paintbrush could create works that if some looked at them they'd go nuts. Other records say that one kingdom was destroyed in a night after it's ruler went mad when a painting made by that brush was sent to him... If any other leaders o' the world got somethin' like that..." The mare let out a cold shudder at the thought of the damage that could do.

[SteelEagle]

Twilight was quiet a moment after Pressy asked her about the attack. It was a terrible event and she would rather her friends not bring it up. It was the pain of three things rolled into one. The physical pain of the explosion that knocked her out of commission for the whole raid was one, and from time to time she could feel it in her bones. The second was the knowledge that this pain and suffering was caused for no great reason, none that could be worthy of the pain caused, other than evil. And the final hurt was knowing how vulnerable they were, and how little could be done to stop it from happening in the future.

 

"I could be much better, but let's not discuss them any further. Organizations such as W.R.A.I.T.H thrive on fear," she said, not wanting to press her on just how she knew about an evil organization that some in the intelligence community only became aware of after the attack. Very curious. "They are not the only group who should not have access to relics of this power, nor are they the ones I'm most worried about," she started evenly before sitting down, levitating some drinks for the two of them as the vessel gained speed.

 

"They are pretty interesting legends. However, such legends are just that- legends. Fiction. They exist to give drama to the collapse of societies and nations, make it understandable t the common pony who doesn't understand economics or politics a discernible cause for why their lives are in such turmoil. It is easy for a pony to imagine madness from a ruler resulting from artifacts than inbreeding resulting in mental defects, or that their liege was replaced by a paper doppleganger rather than his mind being wasted by a cruel form of a parasite leading to a personality change. Better to blame curses for trade failures and poverty than high tarrifs. The Paintbrush, from best we can tell, has never led to an objectively poor outcome mostly because it has sat unused or its power being spent by artists, not madponies."

[Pretzelparty]

 

Presteza's ears folded back a bit and her gaze lowered a bit. She recognized pauses like that; She'd made a few of those after she'd been kidnapped by that dragon with the really unfortunate name. The painter should have realized that she should have not reopened such relatively fresh wounds, so she made sure not to press the issue. 

 

Another thing that managed to bring the painter down a bit was twilight's little speech. She loved legends... and even if the paintbrush itself wasn't magical anymore she would have still like to see what it was capable of. "But isn't there usually a bit of truth behind most Myths? Couldn't it have been possible that there were outside influences? I mean if that changeling plan during Princess Cadenza's wedding hadn't been stopped wouldn't it be counted among the various possible fictions you've listed?" Whether or not Presteza was wrong she was still something of a romantic at heart. 

 

"Bein' able to find the brush in working order would have been awesome but even if it doesn't 'ave anything left in it, I'll still do my best to help ya find it."

[SteelEagle]

 

"It is true that myths and legends are spawned from some kernels of truth. Nothing springs from nothing, after all. But the kernels are often spawned from the effects, not the causes. I this case, myths and legends are used to explain why a society or nation collapsed. Some cultures would blame cruel gods of the sea for tsunamis. The effect happened- the tsunami- but the cause was an underwater earthquake or mating nearby krakens. Not cruel gods. How were they to know, though? The failure of crops, terrible storms from the Everfree, madness in the king. Today we know failure of crop rotation, unstable magical effects in the Everfree, inbreeding- in yesteryear they blamed artifacts, spells, higher powers

 

Of course, not all legends are untrue. The Elements of Harmony were considered legend. They were different though. They were considered historical legend- part of our history, possibly fantasized to an extent but based on real events. The story of Luna's Rebellion seemed like that- a story- only because it had happened so long ago. But it was there in the archives. I...well, I had never really checked because it wasn't magical history...but anyway, the Elements were there. Written off as historical fiction surrounding historical fact. These are different from legends and myths used as explanatory measures- the Elements were there and part of history. Outside of that, explanatory legends and myths exist to cover up patches in our knowledge. Knowledge we gain every day!" she said excitedly, sipping some tea as it was levitated over.

[Pretzelparty]

 

The painter's ear rose a little bit, it was nifty to here this stuff explained but... She couldn't help but feel really down that potentially all the myths and legends she ehard growing up could be untrue.  Presteza was the type of pony who loved to hear about myths and strange events in history, larger than life fables and mystifying Events of the past; all of that was just bloody wonderful and believing it was true, that there was more than just the magic that everyone else had observed. 

The freckled pony levitated her pencil out of her bag and began to sketch out a small landscape, "I guess I personally find that story of one of the myths around the paintbrush so amazing... like the story of the Merchant's muse." Presteza held up her sketchbook to show Twilight, on it there were several images on each page and soon she began to flip them rapidly with her magic. It was a flipbook now, with elegantly drawn images animated with each turn of a page. "Y'know that story?" she asked as she looked down at the freshly drawn pictures in the book. 

 

The images spoke of an ancient tale of a commoner who once found a paintbrush. This commoner was just a simple merchant but with the brush he found himself beginning to draw and paint things with at one point... the drawings he made came to life and danced about with glee. The pony began to sell such pictures all over his town until one day he noticed himself growing weaker... and weaker, and weaker still. While his living artwork only grew more and more lively, yet he could not stop painting. One day a little filly stopped by, a cutiemark with a pencil and a sketchbook on her flank and after touching the brush it flew to her side and failed to leave... but the merchant had all his energy returned. The filly however lived a long, full life and painted many things that made her happy, she sold a few, and even made a decent living for herself but oddly enough she only made use of that living art on strange occasions and it never sapped her strength... not like the merchant.

 

"I always thought of it sort of like... how not everyone can be an artist and trying to force yourself to be one through shady means will only hurt you in the long run... while if a real creative type has the tools she needs to improve herself she can only get better." The mare chuckled awkwardly and rolled her eyes, "And there I go, gettin' all philosophical again! Sorry, Twilight... By the way, how're things with the family?"

 

 

 

[SteelEagle]

Presteza recounted a particularly engrossing fable, one Twilight was not familiar with but could appreciate. Like many fables they were tailored to a specific audience for a specific cause and effect. Children, pegasi, sailors and now painters! Some fables were more apt for others and their lessons distributed over a larger segment. Others were more narrow and biased a bit. This fable, for instance, was quite entertaining but the moral came across as being very unusual and a bit unfocused. There were no shady means involved. The merchant used the same methods and tools of the younger painter, did he not? If anything, the moral came from a Naturalist's stigma of those acting out of their station.

 

A common theme in their works was that a pony was only ever capable of certain tasks, and acting outside of those bars only ever lessened them and lessened the lives of whoever should have filled that role instead. This led to some segmented cultures and societies, and she wasn't going to judge this philosophy poorly- it worked foe some. It did clash with her own beliefs and experiences, however. She earnestly believed ponies should be free to explore themselves and experience what life had for them as long as it didn't harm anypony else. By always trying new things you would eventually find your own evolved self. She was a case study- middle-upper class mare turned student turned Princess. Yes it was true- she was molded and had a great deal of innate talent. But it was through evolving experiences and changes that she became who she was meant to be. 

 

Under common Naturalist thought, she would be identified as a magical prodigy, sequestered, and leaned on. She would be told and treated as a magic user, identified as unique, and likely kept away from what made her especially unique and a Princess- the ability to walk out of your shell and make friends. Naturalist philosophy and fables weren't anathema to that concept, but the higher and more powerful the ability, the less likely a Naturalist would be to want that to wander away. Instead of engaging in a philosophical debate about the Four Camps of Development Thought, she nodded and smiled. "Ohh, that's a nice fable. Where'd you hear it?" She said, the motion of the airship becoming a bit jerky and knocking some things out of their holdings as it encountered turbulence, reaching new heights in the process. "This is exciting! Let's see how she handles the Rift at this atmosphere," she said, wiggling in her seat in excitement.

 

Onto more conversational topics. Her family was so busy nowadays. Her brother was jump-starting the development of the Crystal Protective Services, or CPS, which was a reformation of their defense forces into a more suitable and elastic organization. Cadance was trying to get into the nitty gritty of running a proper nation-state. Both were running themselves ragged with a newborn of such uniqueness that it defied classification. Father was still running around trying to please a wife who was demanding in a great many ways- even if other ponies didn't see it- and his job still called upon all his wits. And her mother? She was the same free spirited lovely tongued matriarch she had always been.

 

"Oh, they're all so busy. Busy but good. Shining is doing his best to get the Crystal Empire's protection services up to snuff and Cadance is doing a great job as Princess. Mom and dad are being themselves and my niece...still so weird to say that!...she is doing well. Thanks for asking, Pressy!"