The learning curve

POV L.Cpl Ben Beal

Ben was apprehensive about walking into the personal quarters of a royal unicorn that he's known for barely two hours. But he walked in anyways.

The room had a dark theme, and the wallpaper was a navy blue. Light illuminated the cool coloured room to give it a sort of moonlight look. The carpet was perfectly textured. It was soft but not squishy, and was a greyish tone. There was a large bed at the far end, which he guessed was Luna's. turning his head away from the bed to look for less awkward things, he noticed a blue mat with Luna's cutie mark on it in the centre of the room.

He walked onto the central mat and looked at the wall art. There were two landscape pieces of Equestria at night. The moon was depicted in one of them as having the 'seas' make up the neck and head of a unicorn. It looked a bit ominous to say the least. The last piece, was a portrait of her and Celestia. It (like everything else in the palace) was expertly crafted. Each brush stroke was clearly visible, but managed to blend in with the others.

As he was busy gazing at the magnificent art covering the walls, Luna approached him slowly. Joined his viewing and began talking about the paintings.

"The portrait was painted over a thousand years ago."

"Really?"

"Yes. Celestia and thyself had two created. The other lies with my sister. The artist was a fool, hehe. Oh, but he was an amusing fool."

"How so?"

"He reminded me of our father, stubborn and selfish. He had his snout so high in the clouds, he could not see what was at his hooves."

"Plenty of those around."

"Quite. And that landscape piece over yonder..."

Luna pointed to the picture of a wide, night time valley. With Canterlot on the side of the valley, at the base of its host mountain.

"... Was created by an artist that I admired at the time. I believe his name was... Hoovonado Da' Vinci."

Ben frowned and looked at the floor in thought.

"Hmm, interesting."

Luna raised an eyebrow.

"It is?"

"Yes. Back on my world in the renaissance era, in the country of Italy. We had an artist called Leonardo Da' Vinci. Coincidence, maybe?"

"It seems so. Did your 'Leonardo' paint any portraits by the name of 'Canter Lisa' ?"

"No, but he did paint a portrait called the 'Mona Lisa'. Luna, this doesn't sound like a coincidence to me."

"They may be linked somehow. But the reason is unknown to me. Though it would be interesting to look for other similarities between our worlds, sometime."

"It could be a little project of ours."

They caught each others eyes and they smiled.

"And what is that last painting? The one of the moon."

Luna sighed and walked up the painting. Running her hoof along the pictures frame and looked down.

"This is a painting of the moon during the time of my banishment. After my nightmare form returned, she was defeated, and my sister welcomed me back in with open forelegs. I bought this soon afterwards as a reminder of those lonely times."

"You referred to your 'nightmare form' as 'she'. Implying it was not actually you?"

"Yes. Nightmare Moon was... Me, but not me. She possessed my mind and turned me against my sister and my ponies..."

Luna closed her eyes and her breaths became shaky.

"Luna, are you ok?"

She to gently sob. She collapsed onto her haunches and bowed her head.

Ben immediately took a place at her side and crouched down to get on her level. Placing one hand on her soft neck, he stroked her. His attempts to comfort her seemed to be going nowhere, as she didn't stop.

"... The things I did... I was powerless to stop thyself..."

"Luna? Luna, listen to me."

She picked up her head and tilted it sideways to look at him. Her eyes said it all. Pain, regret, self torture. It was an experience that he knew.

"Luna... After I had met the Elements of Harmony, I started thinking. I killed four members of my race. None had deserved it. They all had families, personalities and lives beyond that of which I knew. I thought about how I had just ended them so suddenly, without good reason..."

He could feel the same ache returning to his heart that he had felt after meeting the girls.

It was beyond saddening. It ran him through the chest with an emotional rapier, making him feel the reality of his actions that his young mind couldn't take, and he began to break down.

"... I knew that I was a psychopath... I hadn't thought about *sob* other people. All I *sob* wanted was to be free..."

It was now Luna's turn to be the Samaritan. She wrapped her forelegs around him, and pulled him close. They hugged, as their tearful eyes closed and buried their sorrow in the embrace.

They remained like this for several minutes as they allowed themselves to calm down. They broke the hug and rested their arms and forelegs on each others shoulders.

"... See Luna? You're not alone, just like I said. We're equals, you and I. We should look out for each other, right.?"

Luna smiled and nodded.

"Let us change subject, shall we? We probably look ridiculous, sat here in tears."

"Hehe, lets."the both stood up in unison. Luna walked towards her balcony and opened the glass doors. Heading through onto the balcony, she was followed by Ben. They watched over Canterlot in silence, before Ben found something to talk about.

"So... Since you're mostly nocturnal, what do you do during the day?"

"Oh, I'm not completely nocturnal. Although I do have hold court at night, I manage to leave in some time for sleep. Night court lasts four hours from sundown, so I barely get any rest in the summer, as you could imagine. During my sleep, I visit troubled ponies in their dreams to guide them in the right direction. I took a particular interest in you, because of what you said back at the viewpoint."

"I see. What do you do during the day?"

"Indefinite. Sometimes I rest. Other times I visit the children's orphanage in Canterlot, or go to events."

"An orphanage, huh? Where is it? Just out of interest."

Luna pointed toward downtown, at a large building that had an overpass tunnel joining two sections of the building.

"Over yonder, at the terraces."

Ben thought about other things to try and make conversation, and then he realised...

"Oh, bloody hell! I can't believe I haven't told you my name yet!"

"Ah yes. What is thou's name?"

"A bit late for greetings now, but... Whatever. My name is Ben Beal."

Luna frowned.

"I have never heard a name like that before."

"We'll back home, we didn't usually get people named Luna, either. My rank as a military cadet is 'Lance Corporal'."

"I have not heard of this position."

"Unsurprisingly. It's a pretty low rank, only the second rank upwards in the cadets. The first simply being 'Cadet'."

"Did thou have any seniors?"

"Of course! Our senior was Sergeant Theodore Render. I didn't know really what to think of the guy. He was alright, I guess. But he could be a proper pain when he wanted to be."

"Sergeant, you say?"

"Uh-huh."

"We have that ranking. It is just below Captain, correct?"

"Yes. I'm guessing we both have captains as well."

They watched a group of guards patrolling around Canterlot. They zigzagged through the city streets, covering as much ground as possible on one sweep.

"I have a question to ask, Luna."

She turned her head to him.

"Why gold?"

"Hmm?"

"For the guards armour."

"Because it is aesthetically pleasing, and very intimidating. Why does thou ask?"

"Because Gold is one of the worst possible armour materials in history. It has a low melting point for a metal, and it is one of the weakest metals."

"That is a similar argument I raised with my sister a long time ago. I thought it would be better to make the main armour from steel plate, and coat it in gold. It is cheaper, and has a higher protection value. Apparently, Equestria does not have very violent crimes and we would not need better armour."

"That is a point. But then there's the whole expense argument."

"Exactly. Does thou have armour with you in Equestria?"

"Yes I do. It is at Fluttershy's cottage, where I am staying."

"What is your armour constructed from?"

"A material called Kevlar. I'm not sure exactly how Kevlar is constructed, but its one durable material. There is a prototype armour my species are designing called, 'Dragonscale'. I'd love to wear some of that stuff but unfortunately, I'm not a rich guy. I could never afford a set of Dragonscale body armour."

"Interesting. Do you have weapons?"

Ben grinned and once again unzipped his jacket to reveal his knife and pistol.

Luna grabbed them in her magic, and removed them from their holdings to inspect them.

"Be carefully with the pistol. That's the black thing with a barrel and handle. Make sure the safety switch is on, and you don't pull the trigger."

He showed her the safety switch, and made sure it was off, before letting her handle the weapons by herself. Keeping a constant eye on the m9. If she were to shoot something, who knows what would happen.

"What does the 'pistol' do?"

She asked, walking back inside her room. Ben followed her back in and closed the doors to the balcony.

"It fires a bullet, a small piece of lead, at high velocity. The pistol is not too powerful. It would kill you if it hit you in the head at close range, but anywhere else and they'll just fall down in pain."

"Then what is its purpose?"

"It is a backup weapon. Used to cover yourself and provide time to find a safe place or time to prepare your primary weapon. It can also be used as a self defence weapon for a civilian, due to its lower power."

"Hmm. Do you have an example of a. 'Primary weapon' at Fluttershy's cottage?"

"Yes. It fires a thinner, but longer round at higher velocity than the m9. Thus, having higher range, accuracy and surface penetration. Although its damage is questionable."

"In what way?"

"The m9 fires a 9mm round. My l85a2 fires a 5.56mm round. It makes a considerably smaller hole . The only thing to back this up, is that it fires rounds in rapid succession. Nearly eight hundred per minute actually."

"Are there any of your species weapons with higher caliber?"

"Hehe. Oh yeah! The other main primary round is the 7.62mm. Heavy anti personel weapons fire the large 308., or 338. round. There is also the less common 408. round. Or the ultimate killing round, the infamous 50.BMG. Which is guaranteed to kill nearly anything that crosses its path. If it doesn't die due to the shot, its gonna bleed to death. And after that we have explosive rounds which are just stupid, and are used for anti vehicular purposes."

"We'll then, it seems your armies are well prepared for wars. How many military personnel do you have?"

"My home country has around about sixty thousand in total. Other countries have more or less. But most have more, my home country is pretty small."

Just then, a knock on the door stopped their conversation. Luna sighed and proceeded to the door. Opening it, there was Celestia standing there. She took a look at him and smiled.

"Making new friends are we, Mr.Beal?"

"You could say that, your majesty."

Celestia walked in and sat down. She turned to Luna and began to speak with her.

"Sister, we have some troubling news."

Luna looked intrigued.

"What is it ?"

"Guards captured a Changeling sneaking around in the lower class district. We have it in the dungeon, waiting to be questioned."

Luna cursed under her breath and turned to Ben.

"Apologies, but we will have to continue this conversation later. I have important matters to attend. Come with me if you wish. Lead in, sister."

Celestia nodded at Ben as he followed them out of the door. The two goddesses moved with a quickened pace, so he had to jog in order to keep up with them.

After they descended the staircase, they followed a new route into a large room that must've been central as doors were on every side of the room, and it had even parameters.

The guards opened a large set of double doors for them, as they headed down into what must be the basement. The walls were now flattened stone blocks, and the atmosphere suddenly became dark and murky.

Several guards stood by at the opening into the dungeon. Their spears represented the protection they gave to everyone outside the place.

They moved into a new corridor, that headed off into circular downstairs sections, contains multiple cells in each one. Sometimes he could hear pleas of release from some of the prisoners. Equestria's dark side.

"What's a 'Changeling'?"

"A Changeling is a creature that disguises itself as a pony in order to get close to other ponies unseen. So that it can feed of their positive emotions, like a parasite. If it were four years ago, I'd have sent it back to its hive. But because they launched a full scale attack on us not long ago, I need to know we're not in danger. I must learn everything I can from it."

Celestia seemed determined to get her way here. A guard opened a door to one of the chambers, and Celestis looked inside. She walked in.

If looks could kill, this was a 50.cal bullet of a facial expression. A mixture of determination and seriousness. Bringing the 'serious face' to a whole new level.

As he headed inside, something was strewn out on its belly on a metal table. It looked oddly equine, although it had uneven holes at the bottom of its legs. It's eyes were a solid light blue and a pair of fangs protruded from its upper jaw. It's body was matte black and he could see how it could blend into the shadows to escape an enemy. It had translucent wings that buzzed helplessly as it writhed around on the table, unable to break its bindings. It's horn was glowing from a spell cast on it by a pony, but below the discolouration of the spell, he could tell its horn was sharpened at the front and tip like a knife.

It glanced up at the royals in horror and panicked. It tried desperately to break away from its prison but failed. Truth be told, Ben felt a bit sorry for the poor thing.

Luna pointed at a unicorn guard in the corner of the room.

"You, cast a calming spell. We cannot get anything with it so scared."

The guard lit up his horn and the changeling shivered with an aura of coloured light, shaking its body. It's breathing became more regular afterwards but it still looked terrified.

Celestia and Luna took up positions at its head and it looked up worriedly at them.

"Now then, changeling. Let us begin."