All is Fair

It was a merry day for miss Facade Uphold, the daughter of one of the most prestigious families in northern Manehattan. She had been allowed to invite a friend from her school to her manor, an event so seldom allowed by her parents. The filly was excited waiting in the garden to see her, wearing an amber dress that brought out her amethyst eyes. She had brushed her mane so the scarlet was pointid at the center and the duke blue split at her horn pointed near the left of her eyes.

She must have waited for hours until one of the butlers approached her and announce the arrival of not only her planned guest but his twin brother. The two unicorn colts wearing vests that resembled dress uniforms for the royal guard marched down the cobblestone path towards her lounging chair.

Frost Charge, the colt she had planned to come,  had brushed his denim mane downwards, his gray coat was washed, and he smiled as he saw the smile on Facade’s beautiful face.

Flame Charge seemed to be an parallel to his brother, a taller colt with rust red mane and white coat, similar gray eyes as his brother also had.

The two colts bowed to the cream coated filly, and she giggled as the two got back up. “You two look handsome today,” she said with a smile.

Frost blushed lightly while Flame nodded, addressing her with “You seem rather radiant, miss Facade.”

Facade couldn’t help but giggle at his demeanor, finding his chivalry attractive. “Merci, sir Flame.”

“I speak only the truth, madam.” He approached Facade, rose her hoof, and planted a small kiss onto it.

“You treat me like royalty.” Facade replied to this. “Is there a reason for such chivalry?”

“Is there reason for me not to be as such?”

Frost couldn’t help but feel left out and approached the chair. “Might I s-say, miss F-Facade, uh…” His cheeks were bright red with blush. He was being upstaged by his brother around Facade, the filly he had come to know as a great friend. But he knew one word that would change the topic. “H-how is the play coming along?”

Something in Facade had clicked and she became even more excited than she was before. “Oh, it’s coming along swimmingly. I’ve been having a few problems with some of the lines, but I’ll have it down before opening night.”

He smiled and a thought arose. “I-I could always help you. Maybe I could run through the lines with you.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“I’d do much for you.”

Facade looked to one of the butlers nearby. “Sir, may I bring my guests into the house?” The butler nodded and began escorting the young ponies into the main house.

When they entered the Uphold house, Flame and Frost couldn’t help but be amazed by the interior. It seemed to be of Griffon design mixed with pony masonry. The walls were of a refined basalt, a smooth black surface around the entirety of the  room. The floor was a refined moonstone, along with the two stairways that led to the second floor. The balconies were protected with platinum bars supporting gold rails.

Then came the coup de grace, a statue of pure marble depicting the lord of the house, Sir Sage Uphold. His masculinity was depicted by his buff chest and his tall stature. He was standing on his back legs, a common royal guard cavalry stance. Levitating a meter away from the statue was a depiction of a spear, a noble weapon for his time, but rendered useless now by the discovery of gunpowders various uses in combat.

The colts looked at the statue in aw, the two fans of the royal guard and it’s history. Sir Defender Uphold was once general and lead in the defense against the changeling hordes about thirty years before today.

“A-amazing,” Flame said as he gazed upon the statue under the balcony.

Frost looked from the statue to Facade and smiled. Facade looked back at him, making him blush lightly, so he looked back to the statue. “I-it sure is.”

The filly looked at her father’s self glorifying statue and nodded, even though the two colts wouldn’t see her.

Frost looked back at Facade and finally made the silence fall. “S-so… you needed help with your lines?”

Facade looked to Frost and nodded. “Yes. I’m stuck on a small scene.”

“Do you have your script?”

“I’ll go get it. Wait here, my father would go mad if he heard I had colts in my room.” She started trotting upstairs as Frost gazed upon her. As she went to the hallway and out of sight, Frost couldn’t help but sigh.

“So,” Flame spoke up, “why’d you bring me here if you didn’t want to be overshadowed?”

“B-brother, I don’t think you’re-” Frost received a stern look from his brother and sighed. “You were always a better psychic than me.”

Flame smiled. “I can tell you like her, and you think I’m trying to swoop in to a relationship that hasn’t started yet.”

“You’re not really helping me.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry, brother, I’ll calm down with my manners.”

Frost felt betrayed by this. “Manners? You’re deliberately trying to mess things up. You know I’ve liked her for months.”

“Yet you’re scared to say ‘love’ instead of ‘like’. I’m not your obstacle, your own self doubt is.” He pat Frost on the back and spoke sympathetically. “You can do it, Frost, just gotta stand up for yourself. Plant both hooves on the ground, raise your chin up a bit, and admit to yourself you can do it.”

Frost took the advice like an order and started planting his hooves in an attention stance, raising his chin so his head was level with the ground, and took in a deep breath. “I…” He felt himself slip, he was nervous.

“Come on, you can do it.”

Frost corrected his position and nodded. “I… I love Facade.”

“There you go, brother. But don’t tell me. When she comes down those stairs, look her in the eyes and admit it to her.”

“Thank you.” He smiled at his brother, and then heard a hoofstep from the stairs. He turned to see the young filly trotting down the stairs levitating a small book beside her.

“I found it,” she exclaimed as she trotted down towards her guests. The light from one of the windows hit her face in such a way that her eyes seemed to glow. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she offered the book to Frost. “It has the blocking written in the margin. Do you know how to read a script?”

Frost nodded as his eyes turned from gray to an alice blue, the book not surrounding by an auric field but seeming to be carried by the wind. He brought it to himself. “I’ve read a few, but never played through one.”

“Open up to page sixty three, start from ‘Soft you now’.”

Frost opened up to the specified page and received a slight nudge from behind. He didn’t pay it any mind, knowing his brother wanted him to do as they planned, but he was waiting for the right time. He looked at the lines and began. “Soft you now! The fair Circuitous! Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remember’d.”

“Good my lord,” Facade replied in character, “how does your honour for this many a day?”

“I humbly thank you. Well, well, well.”

“My lord,” She started to method act, seeming to be depressed, “I have remembrances of yours, that I have longed long to re-deliver, I pray you, now receive them.”

“No, not I, I never gave you aught.”

“My honour’d lord, you know right well you did, and with them, words so sweet breath composed as made the things more rich, their perfume lost, take these again, for to the noble mind rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unwell. There, my lord.”

He looked at the lines for her character, “You made a small mistake. It’s ‘unkind’, not ‘unwell’. The rest was perfect, to the book.”

“Oh… Shall we continue from ‘There my lord’?”

“If you want to.”

She took in a deep breath and prepared for Frost to say his lines.

“Ha, ha! Are you honest?”

“My lord?”

“Are you fair?”

“What means your lordship?”

“That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.”

“Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?”

“Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness, this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.”

The two continued the lines of the scene, Frost pausing from time to time to correct a slipped line if need be, but eventually they reached the end of the scene between Regal and Circuitous. The two took a bow for their audience of one, and were greeted by Flame’s standing ovation.

It was a few hours after the colts had arrived. They had taken themselves to a lounge where a servant was playing the saxaphone, playing a small and somewhat catchy tune. Frost and Facade were sitting on the same couch, while Flame was standing by a side table. The sun was setting and an amber glow came from the westward window.

"Today was fun," Facade said with a yawn.

Frost looked at the young filly whose eyes seemed to glow in the light. He nodded and replied, "It was."

"Thank you for helping me with my lines."

"I'm always happy to help." The two blushed as they stared each other in the eyes for what felt like an infinity.

"Facade," The silence was broken as Flame spoke up, "I believe my brother has something to tell you."

"Oh?" Facade replied. "And what is that, Frost."

Frost looked her in the eyes and struggled as he spoke the words, "I... I... I l-lo..." He took in a breath and finally said the three words that he had wanted to say since the moment they had met. "I love you."

Facade's blush had brightened, her cheeks a beat red. She had no idea what to say. She had no idea how long he had held those words back. She knew one thing though, that she loved him just as well. She smiled and hugged Frost, almost in tears. She felt the urge to kiss the colt, but she also knew her parents would catch word of such a thing if one of the servants had seen. As Frost held her, she whispered to him "I love you too."

The colts had returned home and Facade was alone in her room, in a daze from what had just happened. She was overwhelmed with joy and couldn't wait to see her love again. Her day was long so she laid in her bed, holding a small gift she had received last Hearths Warming from Frost. It was a small decorative dagger within a tanned leather sheath.

The dagger was made of iron and lined with brass design, arranged to look like it were from an airship captain's arsenal with a few small gear designs engraved into the handle and a small compass on the hilt.

She closed her eyes, holding the leather cased dagger close to her chest, and slowly went to sleep.

Frost and Flame had returned to their family’s estate and were preparing for a night’s rest.

“I’m proud of you, Brother.” Flame told his brother. “I knew you had it in you.”

“Thanks.” Frost replied as he landed on his own bed. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own, though.”

“Hey, you can thank me later. How about when she’s walking down the aisle?”

Embarrassment had struck and Frost could feel the blood rush to his face. “B-Brother, that’s a far down the line.”

“So you plan to?”

“I do… One day…” his blush had relieved and he relaxed with his head on his pillow. He was still thinking of Facade. Her smile, her laugh, a sneak of her plot he had seen when she was trotting up the stairs this day.

“Brother, I never knew you were a pervert.” He chuckled and the emerald glow of his eyes changed back to gray.

“B-Brother!” He was surprised that he didn’t notice. “You know we’re not allowed to use thaum on each other. Father would go mad if he found you peaking.”

“It’s not like you didn’t peak on anything.” He chuckled. “Now tell me, do you love Facade for her personality or her plot?”

“Her personality, of course.”

Flame looked at his brother and tried to detect a lie without using thaum, yet it seemed this was the honest to Celestia truth. “Well done, Brother. You’ve become a stallion.”

“Thanks.” Frost then looked up to the ceiling, letting his thoughts paint a picture of him and Facade. But then a wave of exhaustion overwhelmed him, and he couldn’t help but close his eyes. “Goodnight, brother.”

“Goodnight.” Flame replied, laying in his own bed on the opposite side of the room.

The two colts drifted to sleep soon after their conversation.