+Balisong the Portrait-less.
“‘Et go!” cries Falcata, her voice muffled by the weapon in her mouth as she brings her training axe down in a reckless swing, losing her composure again. Glaive keeps grabbing her legs with his magic, and having to constantly flap her wings just to stay upright is driving the pegasus to the point of insanity. This is at least the twentieth time, and even though she knows she’s doing exactly what Glaive wants her to, she still lashes out with an unwisely aggressive swing, no longer caring about guarding herself, just wanting to score a solid hit on the irritating unicorn.
Glaive easily avoids the wild swing and in turn strikes his weapon onto Falcata’s head, gently tapping the target. Having won the match, he takes a step back and places his axe upon the ground, allowing him to speak unobstructed. “Falcata,” his magic is still grasping her legs, just in case, though no longer trying to unright her, “You lost your cool, again. That is going to get you killed out there one day. You have to learn to keep control, no matter what tricks your foe plays.”
Falcata spits her axe to the ground. "I'll control my axe through your spine!" retorts the white mare, having no eloquent reply to his assessment of her. Glaive is right once again, but the magical trickery had been getting on her nerves for some time now. She tries to lunge at him in mock aggression, but forgets about the enchantments round her legs, falling over with a suitably embarrassing thump. "Let go! Kashez damn your magic!"
Glaive with a sigh of mock indignation, says, “Very well.” and releases his wife from his magic grasp just before she makes another attempt to break free with pure violence, causing the white angry mare to fly forward, and with great speed, to crash into her husband with a mighty thud. A moment later, Glaive begins to realize what just happened as he finds he is on the ground with Falcata on top of him.
"Idiot," she smirks, perching on top of her husband like an eagle atop its nest. "Now
I win! This is the bit where I snap your gods-damned horn off and defeat you fair and square, with none of your magical cheating." She pokes his horn with a forehoof, "disabling" it. "No more nonsense, dear. I know you mean well, and I know I might have to fight magically equipped foes one day, but..." She scowls at him. "It's so annoying. I would win every time if not for that spiralled pointy bastard."
Glaive smiles, Falcata spoke true and he knew it. She was faster than him, and was much lighter on her hooves, without his magic he couldn’t compete with her at all. “Aye, but dear, if I didn’t have my horn, that would hardly be a fair fight, not when you still have these lovely things.” he carefully brushes his right forehoof along her left wing, with a gentle touch.
"Are you suggesting you would have any chance if you were hornless and I was wingless, hmm?" Falcata arches her back like a cat, pushing into Glaive's stroking forehoof.
That feels nice. "Because that's really funny. The funniest joke I've heard from you in all these years, in fact."
Keeping his forehoof to his wife's wing, "Why, you wound me my dear." Glaive continues in a suggestive tone, "Why, I dare say, if your fluttery little wings were, all tied up, then I wouldn't need my magic to deal with you at all."
"Is that a challenge?" she murmurs in reply, lying even lower on top of Glaive in a half-amused, half-predatory manner. "Tied up or not, without your magic I think you might find yourself dealt with, rather than the other way about..."
Suddenly before Glaive could respond the silence of the Ducal Guard barracks was shattered like so much glass, “Daaaaaad! Falchi HIT ME!” shouted the usually quiet Balisong as she rushed up the stairs, her hooffalls heavy upon the marble staircase.
"Did NOT!" comes the instantaneous response, more galloping audible as Falchion pursues his sister. "Mum! Bali's telling lies again!"
Glaive lets out a heavy sigh, “...Back to work I guess.”
Falcata quietly curses something unspeakably rude, rolling off of Glaive in a huff. "Not again..." she mutters darkly, very much unamused by her foals' antics.
Balisong skids to a stop in front of her parents, crocodile tears in her eyes, “Falchion was being mean to me again and I told him to stop, and...and he HIT ME!” she says accusingly.
The accused party tumbles through after his sister, outraged. "I didn't do anything and now she's saying I hit her but I didn't do that and I would never do that ever ever and she's a great big liar liar!" Falchion presents his defence in a flurry of rapid fire counter-allegations, his sister's fake tears worrying him no end.
Glaive get onto his hooves, standing over his two young foals. Something he knew he wouldn't be able to do for much longer at the rate they grew. "ENOUGH!" Glaive's voice echos like thunder upon the marble walls. "You two are always fighting about something. One of you tells us one thing and the other one the opposite. We can't keep settling all these pointless disputes. You aren't babies anymore, and you are family, start acting like it!"
Falchion shuts up immediately, retreating to the staircase, lowering his ears in a display of contrition."Sorry, Dad," he quickly apologises, before his sister can.
Balisong’s fake tears immediately stop as her father raises his voice. It wasn’t going to work this time. As he speaks she hangs her head and lowers her ears in shame, when he finishes she apologizes, “I’m sorry Dad.” and she turns to her brother, “And, I’m sorry I said, Friesden only pretends to like you because she feels sorry for you.”
"It's okay, Bali," says Falchion in a tone of voice that suggests exactly the opposite, but he lets the point drop. "I'm sorry I called you a super duper hyper maximum stupider times a million, too..."
Balisong, in an effort to appear to be the bigger pony in this, goes up to her brother and hugs him, “I forgive you.”
Falchion barely returns the hug, already thinking of ways to get back at his sister.
Spiders, maybe?Glaive smiles confident that he has done well and says, “See, that wasn’t so hard. This is how siblings are supposed to act.” He turns to his wife, “Fal, did you want to add anything?”
We got interrupted for that? "Yes, next time just sort it out between yourselves and don't come running to us, because your father and I are sick of it!" snaps Falcata, still a bit irritable at the unexpected incursion by the two troublemakers.
Balisong, releases her brother, and bows her head again, “Oh..okay, Mommy, w...we will.”
"You'd better," confirms Falcata grumpily, heading across to peer out the window with a vacant sort of stare.
Sometimes I hate parenting..."Were you and Dad practising?" Falchion asks tentatively, hoping that changing the topic would cheer his mum up.
You could say that, yes...oh, go away, you and your sister!"Yes," replies Falcata through gritted teeth. "We were."
Balisong speaks up, “I was practising too Daddy, I was trying to make this leaf float like you taught me...but...It’s really hard...Could you show me again?”
Glaive looked a bit disappointed,
I really hoped me and Fal could have some alone time...I guess duty comes first though. “Sure Bali, I can go over the basics again.”
"Me too! Show me too!" pipes up Falchion, not wanting to be left out.
One change of scenery later and the four ponies, three magical and one tagging along for lack of anything better to do, were seated upon the roof of the keep, with nothing but open skies above them. Glaive sat before his two children, a small silver spoon, borrowed from Virtue’s dinning room, lay between them.
Glaive looks pensive, “Now...how to begin? Well...You see my children, magic is the most powerful tool we ponies possess. Those of us fortunate enough to be born with the ability to work it are thus obligated by the gods to use our powers to help ponies, in whatever way we can. That is why I, my father, his father, and his father’s father, use and used ours to protect the ponies of this nation. And one day, you will do the same.”
Oh, here he goes...poor foals don't know you have to interrupt him early else he goes on for hours... thinks Falcata to herself, lying on her back and staring up at the sky. All the magic stuff is going over her head, sure, but it was still nice to just be with her family.
Glaive begins to pace back and forth before them. “Before you can work magic you must first understand, the world is like a grand tapestry, all things are intertwined, by the threads of fate. To most ponies, these threads are hidden, the connections among the parts of the world obscured. Unicorns like me, and alicorns like you, are capable, however of detecting these threads and by expressing our will upon them, we can alter the world as we see fit. However, such power can be dangerous. The web of the world is more complicated than anypony can understand, and changing one thing, always affects something else. Thus we must never try and change something we do not first understand. For doing otherwise can have deadly or disastrous effects. Do you understand?”
Balisong nods. “Yes.”
"Yes?" Falchion confirms, with a bit less confidence. His father has just said a lot of words, and he hasn't really been listening.
Glaive doesn’t pick up on his son’s lack of confidence and takes his seat before them, again. “Good,” he says before continuing, “Now. Look at the spoon I brought here. To use your magic, you must first see it for what it is. This is not
just a spoon. It is a part of everything. It is connected to me, to you, to the fort, to those trees, to the clouds and the stars. Everything.” Glaive’s horn begins to glow. “When you concentrate, you can feel these connections. Both of you. Close your eyes, and open your minds, try and sense the threads of fate.”
And I thought flight school was boring... thinks Falcata, now with eyes shut, half-asleep.
Balisong does as she is told. She closes her eyes and tries to reach out. It is difficult for her at first. Her horn flashes faintly, slowly, like a candle flickering in the wind, before finally turning bright with a cerulean glow. And then she can see it. Though see wasn’t truly the right word. She could sense what her father was trying to explain. All the threads of the world. She opens her eyes again, and drops her concentration. She has a wide grin across her face.
Seeing his sister's apparent success, Falchion, as usual, determines to do better. He shuts his eyes, a look of intense concentration on his face. Nothing at all happens for about ten seconds, before his horn suddenly flares russet and the spoon on the table melts into a puddle of sizzling molten metal. He opens his eyes, wondering what the noise is.
"Oh...um."
Glaive had a look of surprise upon his face, but it was a pleasant surprise. “That...that was quite impressive Falchion. Tell me did you intend to do that? I knew you were more advanced in your magic then your sister, but I didn’t know you had learned any tricks other than levitation.”
"Um...I, um, felt those strings you were talking about, so I pulled one..." offers Falchion by way of explanation. "I didn't know it was going to ruin your spoon, though..." The young colt smiles anyway.
Better than Bali! Yes!Glaive nods, “I see, and don’t worry, I didn’t expect the spoon to come out of this in one piece, though I didn’t expect it to melt...However, Falchion you have provided us all with a perfect example of what happens when you do something wrong.”
Balisong smiles possibly even wider than she had been a few seconds ago. Falchi had messed up, and she had not and she was feeling quite smug about that.
"Aw...but...you can always get a new spoon? Or can I fix it?" Without waiting for his dad to reply, Falchion tries again, his horn flashing for the second time, causing the pool of molten metal to solidify into four miniature spoons, all utterly useless due to their tiny size. As he releases his concentration, though, three of the spoons melt again, leaving just one thoroughly useless tiny spoon lying in a puddle of liquid silver.
“Falchion! Stop!” says Glaive nearly shouting. “No, Falchion, this isn’t about the spoon. The example you provided was why we never pull on threads without first understanding them. You got lucky. You could just have easily caused it to blow up sending molten metal or jagged shards at all three of us. Magic is powerful, but it is treacherous. It isn’t a toy, and you must never treat it as one. You would hardly be the first Unicorn to hurt himself or others by accident like that.”
"Oops...sorry." he mumbles, looking dejected. "I only wanted to help, Dad."
Glaive give his son an assuring smile. “It is okay son, just please don’t do it again.” Glaive turns to Balisong, “Well, we’ve seen your brother try his hoof at it, are you ready to try some real magic Bali?”
Balisong suddenly looks much less sure of herself, “Um...If...if you think I can.”
Glaive smiles, “I’m certain you can, now close your eyes.” She does so. “Reach out with your mind again.” Her horn begins to glow, as it had before, with much less flickering first. “No, see if you can find the tiny spoon your brother made. I shouldn’t be hard to find after...after he altered it.” Balisong’s face is contorted in pure concentration, until after about 10 seconds, the tiny spoon was enveloped in the same bluish light as her horn.
“Good,” says Glaive, “now if you carefully examine the item you should be able to tell which ‘threads’ are keeping it held to the ground. By gently pulling against them, you can make it move upward, try it now.” As Balisong concentrates a faint hum is heard, seemingly coming from the spoon. However after a couple seconds it stops and the item begins to float.
“Open your eyes darling.” says Glaive a proud smile across his face.
Balisong opens her eyes and sees the spoon floating in the air between her and her father. She had done it. She drops the spoon to the ground, and begins to bounce on the spot in joy, “I did it!” she cries several times, before calming herself.
“That was very good Balisong.” says Glaive approvingly before turning to his son, “Now Falchion would you like to try it?”
"Okay, Dad..." the colt says, somewhat nervously, eyeing the now-motionless spoon. He keeps his eyes open, glaring at the spoon as if it had insulted him viciously, focusing all his attention on it. Both the spoon and his horn spark into life at once, and the small silver object gently hovers above the floor, though the hum produced is much louder and more disconcerting than with Balisong.
"I did it!" he exclaims, keeping the spell active and looking away from the spoon towards his father. "I d-"
There is a huge
bang and the spoon shoots off at an angle, disappearing over the edge of the roof.
Glaive lets out a low whistle. “...That was...very good. You have a lot of power in there Falchion. More than I had at your age anyway. With practice you’ll be better able to control the amount of force you apply so that won’t happen unless you want it to. But with that much magic strength already...You will be a very fine warrior one day.”
"Whussat?" mumbles a sleepy Falcata, having dozed off and been rudely awakened by the bang. "Runs in the family, fine warriorism..."
Falchion simply beams wordlessly, smiling with joy at his parents and sister.
Glaive stands a look of sheer pride in both of his fine foals upon his face. “You have both done well, I’m proud of both of you. But,” he looks at the puddle of cooling silver, “it seems our prop is gone for now. So I think we will end the lesson here for today. I want both of you to keep practicing on your own. Falchion, work on your control, and Balisong, work on putting more power into it. And remember, don’t try anything else without first talking to me or your grandfather about it.”
Both foals nod in unison, “Okay Daddy.”
"Right, so enough of the snooze cruise, I think." smirks Falcata as she pulls herself to her hooves. "How about learning something which isn't mind-numbingly, soul-crushingly boring?"
“I..I don’t...I don’t think magic is boring...” mutters Balisong quietly.
"Yeah, because we haven't started yet, dear. Trust me, when you have this to compare it to and your father starts making you read half a library's worth of magic books you'll see what I mean." assures Falcata with a smile.
Glaive nods, “Go with your mother Bali. I’m going to go find the other part of this.” Glaive levitates the now much cooler blob of solid silver. “...and explain to Virtue what happened to her good silver...” Glaive begins to walk toward the hatch to head back downstairs.
“Um...okay. What, are we going to do?” inquires Balisong.
"What do you think, Bali, Falchi? Flying, of course!" exclaims Falcata, flaring her wings for effect.
"Yay!" enthuses Falchion happily. "I like flying!"
Balisong lets out a nervous squeak.
"Bali? What's wrong?"
Balisong murmurs something too quiet to hear a look of fear upon her face though she tries to hide it from her mother by not looking her in the eyes.
"Bali?" Even Falchion looks a little concerned, not competitive as usual.
“...I...I’m afraid of flying...” she finally manages to squeak out, just barely audible to her mother and brother.
"But...there's nothing to be afraid of, Bali! You were doing magic just there; that's way more dangerous than any flying could be!" says Falcata, aghast.
Balisong’s voice trembles, “b..b..b.but I d...don’t have to be so h...high up when doing m..magic. It isn’t f...f...flying that’s scary....it’s being so h...high up.” Balisong braced herself to be laughed at by her brother, she knew he suspected her of being afraid of heights but she’d always denied it before.
Falchion trots across, gently hugging his sister, seeing that she is genuinely upset. "Aw, Bali, it's okay! Flying is super easy and safe, even high up; Mum will show you!"
Balisong nods, comforted a bit by her brother, “oh...okay...I...I’ll try.” She is still visibly nervous about the whole affair, but seems genuinely willing to try.
“Right, now, both of you flare your wings, and do it
properly. Flying starts on the ground; remember that. Preparing to take off is just as important as everything else, if not
the most important part of flying.” Falcata spreads her own wings to demonstrate.
Falchion likewise unfurls his wings, the colt’s wingspan already comparable to that of his mother.
Balisong hesitates and then copies her brother and mother spreading out her wings as they do.
“Okay, now, if you’re sure that you’re all set to go; no trees around to bump into, plenty of space to take off, etcetera, then just bring yourself up gently. No flashy takeoffs at this stage, yeah?” Flapping her wings gently, Falcata hovers gently above the ground in demonstration, Falchion following her into the air.
Balisong does as instructed, starting to hover into the air, a bit wobbly from her nerves but competently. She was still comfortable so long as the floor wasn’t too far underneath her, but she knew what was coming next, and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Falcata glances at her daughter, making sure she’s still all right. “Now just pick up speed as you go, and follow me. We’ll stay at the level of this roof for now, okay?” She drifts forwards, slowly at first but gradually moving more rapidly.
“You go first, Bali,” offers Falchion, feeling sorry for his sister and valiantly surrendering the proud position of second place.
Balisong flutters into position behind her mother and follows her closely, as they make their way toward the edge.
You can do this, Balisong. Flying isn’t scary, you have wings, you won’t fall. Just follow Mommy and it’ll be okay. Just don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.As they get a few yards out past the edge Balisong looks down. The ground looks so far away, she panics, her legs flailing uselessly. She makes a squeak as her wings lock down onto her sides in pure terror.
“Mum!” calls Falchion, panicking a bit. “MUM!”
Falcata snaps around, having anticipated something like this, but her daughter is already falling too fast and the ground is too close by to catch her. For the second time today, she says something indescribably rude, jetting towards the falling filly despite knowing she couldn’t even hope to break her fall.
_______________________________________
Glaive makes his way out of keep and walks in the direction that the spoon fell. He hoped it was still where it had landed. After a few moments of searching he finds it sticking out of the mud and he says, “There you are. Let’s get you ho-” his sentence is interrupted as a filly almost as tall as him falls from the sky onto his back with a suitably loud thump. As Glaive face first in the mud beings to sort out what hit him, he realizes that for the second time today he has been slammed into the ground by a flying mare.
He rolls out from under his daughter and prepares to scold her for slamming him so hard when he sees that she is shaking, her hooves are hiding her face and something appears to be very wrong. “Balisong....What happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he says as he examines his daughter for any obvious injuries.
Balisong stands up she could feel the eyes of everypony in the fort on her, they were all watching she was sure, she knew they must have seen her fall like that everypony would know, and they would laugh at her, she was certain. Her eyes were full of tears, her face blushing with embarrassment though her fur. She galloped frantically as fast as her legs could carry her away from her father, away from everypony toward her parents home.
“Bali, wait...” calls Glaive as she gallops away.
Falcata dives after her, having seen the collision from above. “Bali! Balisong!”
Falchion continues to perch on the roof, looking concerned. His mum would have it under control, though. She always did.
Balisong pays no heed to her parent’s calls and continues dashing toward her home.
“Balisong!” Falcata calls again, going faster so as to catch up with her daughter. “Balisong! Stop!”
Balisong stops just short of the dorms, she turns to her mother, tears streaming down her face. “I...I c..can’t do it..I..I’m sorry m..mommy...I c..can’t.”
Falcata touches down, skidding to a halt beside her daughter. She wraps her in a huge embrace, reassuring her as best she can. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You don’t have to.”
Balisong holds on tightly to her mother, “No..It’s n..not. I s...should be able to, b...but I can’t. WHY can’t I do it!?” She continues to cry, increasingly loudly.
Gliding out of the sky, Falchion lands beside his mother and sister, joining in the hug. Sure, he loves to annoy her, but seeing his sister
really upset made him unhappy too. “Bali, please don’t cry! At least you’re great at magic!”
Glaive gallops up to his family, he wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew his daughter was upset, so he joined in the hug.
“N..no...I’m not...y..your b...better at that t..too.” stutters Balisong though the tears.
“Balisong,” interjects Falcata, still holding her tight. “It’s okay, these things just take time for some ponies. You can do it, I know you can, but nopony is going to make you start flying until you’re ready. I- I’m sorry if we pushed you too soon...”
Balisongs cries beginning to fade a bit, “But...A...a winged pony afraid of h...heights...I..I'm an embarrassment! I can't do anything right! A...aren’t you d...disappointed in me?"
’Flying? Is that was this is about?’ Thinks Glaive to himself.
’I’ll get the full story from Falcata later.’ He decides.
Glaive wipes the tears from his daughter’s face. “No Bali. No. We love you, and you tried...That’s all we can ask for. We aren’t disappointed in you, and you aren’t an embarrassment. We all love you. And you don’t have to do it again, until you are ready to.”
Falchion squeezes his sister even more tightly. “Bali, you’ll be the bestest superest best flyer when you’re older, I mean it! You’re gonna be super fantastic! You should come and let Frie and me help you, too, because flying is super best when you do it with somepony you l- really like!”
“We would never, ever be disappointed in you for something like this, Bali. Like I said, some ponies just take a bit longer to get comfortable with flying than others, that’s all. Same with a lot of things in life.” Falcata soothes, stroking her daughter’s withers to calm her.
Balisong has seemed to have calmed down enough to stop crying. “O...Okay, can...can I go inside now?” she asks meekly, still worried that other ponies would be less accepting of her foalish fall, should they have seen it.
“Of course you can, dear,” says Falcata, bucking the door open for her. “As long as you want, Bali. In fact, Glaive and I will see about getting you...shall we say, some fried turtle? Maybe with some lemon marmalade of a certain type, hmm?”
Balisong perks up a bit at the mention of her favorite foods. “y..yes please. The pink kind please, that’s my favorite.” She walks inside their home. “Um...I’ll just wait here, if...if that’s okay with you.”
“Certainly. Why don’t I go and get something for all of us from the dinning hall, and we can eat dinner at home tonight?” says the little filly’s father.
“That sounds splendid, doesn’t it, Falchi?” Falchion nods in agreement with his mother, recognising his sister needed the support. He smiles at her, moving in to give her another brotherly hug.
Balisong gladly accepts the hug, from her brother, while Glaive takes his leave to fetch dinner for his family. Once the door is closed and they are waiting, Balisong moves away from her brother and takes out the harp her mother had given her, and begins to play a slow melody.
((End Scene))
Author
Topic: Dawnpick (My Little Fortress) (Read 235941 times)