[Stalliongrad] Laurels and Leisure [Open]

[Neoniie]

The dark brown unicorn almost chuckled at the earth pony's obvious pride at the mention of her alma mater. He wasn't surprised, as that particular brand of pride was one he himself had expressed. That aside, her description of the academy recalled vague discussion of the school to his mind. It seemed that he had in fact heard of the school before, though it was likely that he hadn't entirely been focused on listening to that particular discussion. The unicorn very rarely was invested in any way in the more vapid aspects of the social class into which he had been born. Unlike most upper class ponies, he'd never cared for the forced etiquette of discussion that they practised. It had been one of the things that pushed him more toward the common colts when he was younger.

In fact, this seemed to be a fact noticed by Argenta, as she enquired on it only moments later. "Well, that is certainly their loss. The ponies outside the business world are always the ones with the stories to tell. If nothing else, it does wonders for marketing that even the most snobbish pony should be able to recognize. Personally, I always take time to other ponies. It's the most interesting part of life, and certainly more interesting than just occupying my time with business. It may be my work, but this," he gestured widely at the general area around them, "is my passion."

[Xiee]

Argenta would never have guessed that a business pony would have such passion in what he did in his work. He almost sounded like the drill instructor in her first year at the academy.

"You can only learn to appreciate what you do if you have passion. This passion is what keeps you going and doing the things not out of necessity, but of love..."

Nostalgia. It reminded her when she was but a cadet in her first year. She was reminded of this quote everyday as her drill instructor tirelessly shouted the quote while they were doing their daily runs around the obstacle course. Passion was something that could get things done here and now. It was something that should set the goals in the future and it's what inspires deeds in the past. She really never got to understand what it truly meant not until her final year in the academy when she graduated among the top of her class. The old instructor pony had pinned her VSS badge of achievement while shedding a tear. Only then did she realize that it was his passion to see this class through, and that his passion carried his strong feelings among her classmates and that this would inevitably lead them to their dreams.

"You are quite odd for a business pony." She said as she raised an eyebrow. "It seems that there are still a lot of interesting ponies to meet in this City. I'm glad I have come across you. Not all my friends indulge in my constant talking."

[Neoniie]

"I'll take that as a compliment," he chuckled. Chocolate Tail disliked that idea that he would ever be thought of as a stuffy, old, boring, rich pony by most of the ponies he crossed paths with. It came with the territory, he supposed, and he couldn't exactly help the circumstances of his birth, but he still did his best to distance himself from that side of high society. And so, his reply was entirely sincere. He did take it as a compliment that he was an oddity amongst his fellows. Perhaps it didn't make family reunions the easiest places to make good conversation due to certain differences of opinion between them, but it absolutely made conversation amongst the everyday pony much, much more interesting. He noticed that his attitude had evoked a genuine surprise in the mare and just gave a tiny grin as she went on.

"Oh, I'm certain that ponies are the most interesting part of this city." He glanced around again as he spoke, watching the residents of the district go about their business. "I haven't yet come across a pony who wasn't, yourself included." That particular statement was followed by an inclination of his head toward her, halfway between an acknowledgement and a habitual movement. He paused a moment before continuing, not wanting to ramble on about the interest he took in other ponies, even at their most mundane. "As for your penchant for talk, I actually quite enjoy it. And your normality about all this. Most ponies have this public mask they wear when first meeting somepony. I suppose 'guarded' is the best word for it. But you don't seem to have such a thing. It's...refreshing."

[Xiee]

"My father was a stallion of many words." She said with confidence. "I was rather silent when I was a filly, but I guess he adopted me, his way with words grew on me. He always treated me like a true daughter of his blood, so the only way I could please him was to be like him."

She was intrigued by this principle of being 'guarded'. She wasn't aware that such ponies would hide behind a mask of their own doing. Then again, she was in the army and that meant honor above all else. Hiding who you are wasn't honorable in her mindset, but then again, this city was a multitude of different principles, theories and conflicting moral issues. She didn't want to dwell too much thought into it.

"In the VSS, being who you are and accepting your comrades for what they are is above all else valued and that is one of the most honorable traits a soldier should have." She explained, finding it a bit distasteful as she knew that the common pony folk would make any sense of it. She however sensed that this Pony would somehow understand, at least that's what she had hoped.

"There is nothing for me to hide, if I did then I shouldn't deserve to be a soldier and called an officer. And it is not in my nature to deceive those around me. Perhaps those in the Intelligence Office and their games of espionage and secrecy would do no such things."

[Kalpira]

Since when had Stalliongrad become so overpopulated?! Wintersong had definitely been away from her hometown for too long. She had never liked to socialize with too many ponies, specially if she had no way to move around. She was a forest pony, almost like a wild animal, that still wanted to help out the ones that got lost among her paths. Those were the ones who deserved true atention, and not the ones that just wanted to make her buy things she didn't need, or tell her stories she didn't want to listen at all. But still, she gave it a try.

She was already close to the crowd, moving against the buildings and houses so that nopony would even have the chance to talk to her about anything. She just wanted to explore a little bit out of her beloved forest, and out of her beloved silence. But that had just been too harsh ... She wasn't surrounded by a few ponies, but by hundreds of them. She wasn't sure about the holidays or the fairs that existed in that snowy town, a town she had grown up in, and that she loved so much. That made her feel nostalgia, and smile to herself as she looked around to the houses right above her head.

BUMP!

She felt a powerful push against herself, and when she looked back to the path she was walking in, she found the sun to be covered in her sight and a large shadow covering her figure. Although she was taller than an average pony, the stallion that was standing right in front of her seemed to intimidate the gentle mare. Her pale pink coat turned even paler, and her wings tried to pull her up to escape that terrible sight. But both her wigns and her eyes seemed to be against each other, and while she squeaked in fear and tried to fly forward, she hit an open window and landed right in front of the pair of ponies that were talking happily. On the ground, she caught sight of a brown stallion and a gray mare, which made her shrink in her place and cover her eyes with her front hooves.

[Neoniie]

The chocolate stallion inclined his head at her statement, conceeding to her words easily. "A good philosophy, in my eyes. After all, a pony trying to be somepony they're not is always a recipie for disaster." This thoughts circled back to his own words about being guarded at this point. In all honesty, he had struggled to find the right words for the sensation himself. Perhaps guarded wasn't quite the word for it, but the ponies he had encountered seemed to hide their true thoughts behind a facade. It was as though they were all an high alert, just waiting for the ice to crack beneath them. To be fair, Equestria had been a much more meancing place as of late, what with that whole Changeling debacle in the heart of Canterlot. Additionally, not everypony was quite as scrupulous as they probably ought to be. Taking those two facts in account, Chocolate Tail couldn't really blame them for not wanting to freely give away their life stories to complete strangers. "Also, I must confess that your father sounds like quite the interesting stallion, from the way you tell it. If he's much like you, I would have to say that it's not just the way you tell it that makes me thing so."

Before he could elaborate on this, a pegasus with a light pink coat managed to crash land straight in the path of the two ponies. Chocolate Tail reared back, both taken by surprise and in an attempt to not trample the poor mare. He hadn't been entirely sure how or why the mare had ended up at their hooves, but she certainly seemed frightened. Of what or whom, the unicorn couldn't even begin to guess, but he couldn't just leave the mare cowering before them. He bent his forelegs slightly, lowering his head as he did so. He was a business pony and certainly one with the most tender of personalities, but he tried his best regardless. "Hello," he began, giving his most reassuring of smiles. "Are you alright?"

[Xiee]

"Also, I must confess that your father sounds like quite the interesting stallion, from the way you tell it. If he's much like you, I would have to say that it's not just the way you tell it that makes me thing so."

Her ears perked up at the mention of good things for her father. She was quite proud and wanted to squee in glee that a random stranger pony who never even met her father thought of him that way. Yet she maintained the composure befitting an officer of the VSS. Somehow she let out a little smile towards the Stallion and began to think differently of the business types she had met so far. He was none like them.

"I try to be like him, but I am nowhere near like him." She sighed. "Maybe because I was just adopted..."

She stopped and paused to think.

"But I'd like to think that I was a daughter of flesh and blood...."

OOF!

A little pale pink Pegasus Mare fell right in front of them. Argenta looked at the possible direction of who might have possibly tossed her but the crowd was too thick to determine who the culprit could have been. She went to her side in an instant and made sure she wasn't injured.

"Are you alright madame?" She asked as she reached for the first aid kit in her saddlebag. "What happened? Did someone harass you?"

[Kalpira]

The gentle mare looked up, only trying to peek a little bit to see who was talking to her and if they were a threat or not. She lifted a hoof from over her eye, shivering. "N-nopony...", she started, and covered her eye again, "I-I just got intimidated with a blacksmith and I am not that used to crowds and I just wanted to visit my hometown and--", the mare didn't allow herself to keep babbling, since she was still feeling a little bit scared. That odd ... couple? seemed friendly, but still she wasn't that used to know what kind of pony was talking to her.

[Neoniie]

The mare was clearly one of the more nervous ponies that Chocolate Tail had met. Not that he had met many timid ponies in his life, since the world of business was generally one of boldness and outspoken debate rather than conservation and careful approaches. Though, then again, there were times when a subtler hoof was needed to keep the odds in one's favour, so he must have dealt with the more reserved ponies before as well. Regardless of his experiences with certain personality types, this poor pegasus was clearly quite distressed at the moment. He really couldn’t think of much else to do but try to get the mare into a more familiar atmosphere, which in this case meant talking about something less foreign to her.

Assuming that if Argenta was going to be patching up any injuries on the mare, it would also probably be best to take her mind off of that as well, the stallion was mostly sure that engaging the pegasus in some discussion would be best. He searched for a topic to begin on and remembered her mentioning her hometown. "Well, it's good to hear that nopony was causing any trouble. You mentioned that Stalliongrad was your hometown, yes? In that case, I'm not surprised the crowd gave you a bit of a scare. It's not usually quite this busy in the Torga District. It's probably the spirit of some holiday that has everypony so busy." Internally, he wasn't actually very inquisitive on the subject, he just hoped his approach had been the right one.

[Xiee]

The Blacksmith was scratching the back of his head with his hoof when Argenta began questioning him. He was sorry for having caused the Pegasus to panic and didn't mean it. She knew that the blacksmith was just being himself and there was no harm done. It just so happened that the pegasus mare was so nervous and she'd come across her type a lot in the past. As she trotted back to Choco and the new Pegasus Mare she dispersed the crowd that was starting to form around.

Satisfied that the pegasus mare wasn't injured in any way, she made inquires about her well-being.

"Stalliongrad is your home?" She asked, puzzled by the mare's nervousness. "Perhaps you should stay with us until you reach your intended destination. I'm quite concerned."

If Stalliongrad was this mare's home, then why was she so taken aback by the crowd in the streets? Perhaps this was her ancestral home and she had been away since her childhood and grew up in another part of Equestria. Still it struck her odd that she was here alone given her unique behavior amongst other ponies.

[Kalpira]

The sweet mare got up from her hooves and shook her head, a long and smooth snowy white mane dazzling around until it settled around her neck and forehead. She blinked her pure blue eyes a few times, trying to feel calmer about the environment that surrounded her. After all, those two ponies didn't seem to be harmful, and since one of them was a figure of authority, she could rest. She sighed for a long moment and looked back at them.

"I was born in here, but I soon moved to that forest over there.", she pointed with a hoof and with her head to a forest that ould barely be seen in the distance, but it was learly covered in snow, "I help the ponies that get lost or stuck in snowstorms and help them getting back to safety."; she then explained, a small smile forming on her muzzle. Maybe she had just found the first new friends after she left her hometown? Well her parents sure missed her, but she wasn't sure if they would recognize her. They hadn't approved that well the moving of their daughter to such a remote place, even if she was so close to Stalliongrad.