open Invisible Thread (1x1 with Catpone Cerberus)

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Flint just blinked at Twilight's response, and Somnus's comment, while she didn't say it out loud, she had no idea what any of that meant, Animus, draconequus, Discord, she had never heard any of those terms, in fact, a lot of what had been said regarding their current situation had gone over her head, as she had no idea what exactly had happened during the last years, she knew some details, things she had observed while moving around in Equestria, but any of the names mentioned and terms used? she had no clue.

"Or it just adapted" Flint pointed out "Or just withered away, because with the little I've had the chance to see, it seems that the main operations take place in cities not part of your little nation, and there hasn't been a long enough time for it to deal with the new border." she looked around "Honestly, for a nation with ruler for some reason calling themselves the princess of friendship, this place starts to look awfully lot like my home city with non-uniformed armed guards everywhere." "I wonder how much it would take to win few favors." 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"They're pretty patriotic, corrupting them would be difficult. However, Twilight isn't really a ruler, her position is mostly ceremonial. The real government is separated into different branches with a system that keeps them in check and keeps anyone from gaining too much power. Very complicated stuff I don't feel like explaining. I've had too much politics for many lifetimes."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight

"Good, because I don't feel like listening to it either." Flint remarked "I don't know anything about politics, nor do I care, It's just bunch of rich folk arguing about semantics." she was again skipping instead of walking, and her tone was generally happy when she spoke "So bat-wyrm, how did you end up as a bat?" 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Changeling magic. Was given to changelings for my own protection, some sort of war and my father and mother we King and Queen, they still are. Wyvern can live up to 5,500 years. The only reason we know I'm immortal and my long life isn't just me being a wyvern is because I haven't aged any further than I have. My wyvern form would be larger and no growth deformities were detected and spells that detect magic all point to me being immortal in terms if aging or illness. That also counts for poisoning. Worst thing poison can do to me is taste bad. In fact, I can't even get drunk."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Changelings...oh yeah, those bug-ponies, I've seen one or two at some point." Flint said thoughtfully "I guess next question would be why a bat, but I don't actually care that much." "What I do find odd is that from what I heard, you still count years, why? I don't understand the point even for shorter living creatures, but with your lifespan, even without immortality,  it is even more pointless." "That's like me counting my age in days, if I knew my age." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I don't need to count; I just need to know when I was born and what the day is."

He looked thoughtfully for a moment.

"And why a bat, I don't know honestly maybe the wings had a distant resemblance to draconic wings."

When they reached the station, Somnus would get tickets and then step on the train, sitting down in a seat.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I didn't mean literal counting." Flint pointed out, but left it to that, with the little she had talked with Somnus, she could already see that regardless of his true nature, he was more or less the same as the ponies, and thus most likely thought like ponies, not that she was surprised, considering that he had apparently lived pretty much his whole life with ponies. Flint also sat down, but she soon changed to a lot more relaxed position, that was somewhere between sitting and lying down. "I've never traveled with a train like this before, usually I'm either outside or need to constantly move to avoid ticket inspectors." "Or sit with the cargo if that is an option." "Can't say I've missed much, these seats are not comfortable."  

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Eh, trains were way friendlier in comfort back in Equestria's wild west cowboy phase. Appaloosa still has pretty fancy trains."

Somnus looked thoughtful at the idea of Appaloosa and sighed.

"Their embrace of technology is a mistake. Who needs tanks when you got unicorns?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I won't even pretend like I have any real opinions on that." Flint stated "But with what I do know about the weapon-stuff coming from the naked monkeys, it seems unwise to rely on it." "What if you run out stuff to keep them working and the naked monkeys decide they don't want to give you more?" "Take it from someone who has lived on the streets most of her life, less you need from others, better you'll do, the smallest thing borrowed is the biggest weakness for manipulation." she was now 'sitting' upside down

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Technology costs a lot of money. If you don't have money, your country is weak if it uses that technology to fight and that technology takes a long time to replenish, we're able to produce our weapons and gear fast and a unicorn horn does not run out of ammunition."

"Technology makes people lazy and dependent on that technology, when something gets really bad, and technology is not available, their trained to survive, not attack, just survive."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight

"That is what convenience is, if you never have to do things the hard way, you'll be screwed when the easy way is not available."  "Isn't just about technology either, how well would you be able to sleep in a place you'd consider a bad place to sleep? not well probably, because you're used to having a bed." "Can't say anything about money because I haven't used it for as long as I can remember." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"We agree on certain things then. Your sleeping comment is good. There's a lot of seemingly small things we think about in training, such as sleeping in uncomfortable places. Sometimes in our training, we will sleep on the ground and in trenches. We also teach survival skills in everfree forest. It's the worst forest a person can try to survive, so if they need to fight in another forest, it'll be easy to handle and if they fight in everfree, they'll know the terrain well."

He seemed pretty into talking about this sort of thing actually.

"Truth is, the cultural aspect is important as well. Things like wanting to stick with the old ways of life were naturally engrained into Harmonia culture. I've also ceased the opportunity when war was brewing to engrain the use the of militias into our culture because if you engrain something deep into your culture. This ensures that there are ponies ready to defend the land if needed. And because of our culture of friendship, we won't go taking land that isn't ours. We simply defend our land and the friendship within it, the sword is a shield for friendship and Harmonia."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Is it really an agreement when any other opinion would be factually wrong?" Flint remarked, still upside down "I'm not taking a position on if advancement and convenience is bad or not if you think that's what I said, I'm simply saying that screws are hard to use if you lose your screwdriver, but nails can be nailed using a rock." her allegory wasn't perhaps the best possible, but well. "I know absolutely nothing about military, wars, culture, politics, or anything else you 'civilized' creatures think about, so I don't really care how you run your nation." "I just don't like it when you shout from you warm houses with your well fed bodies how you are better than I am." 

"I haven't trained to do anything, I've learned it because I had to, I learned to fight so that I can defend myself, I learned to catch animals so that I don't starve, I learned to escape bindings to keep my freedom." "It doesn't affect me in any way who is leading what nation and how, because I'm not part of any of it, if your nation burns down, no matter how well you train, you'll suffer, but I? I'll be walking around the ruins none the wiser, because you can't lose what you don't have."  she again spoke in casual, generally positive tone, she didn't seem to take anything she said too seriously, exception being of course her lashing out before. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"But what do you stand for? Is life worth living without a purpose? Nothing to look forward to? Yes, you can lose it all but, at least then you have something to look back to and a goal to regain your loss. But to never have anything and strive for nothing is to have nothing in the past or future. Then, truly you have nothing."

He then spoke of one idea he stood for.

"Freedom. That is important to me. The right to live a safe and happy life, the right to speak your mind and to keep yourself safe from anyone what would hurt you."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I stand for me, myself, and I." Flint stated "My personal happiness is what I strive for."  she put her hands against the ground and rolled to get back on her feet, she then sat back down normally "And happiness, is a mindset, not the result of what you own or who you bow to." "I don't live for material wealth, or fragile social connections, I live for experiences, and I tell you, there's lot of things to look back to." "Thing about having nothing is that when you get to experience something that most see as normal, it really sticks out." " I'd argue that it's lot sadder when someone feels their sole purpose is to die for someone more powerful, honor is a scam, what use is it, to be respected after death, when you waste your life pleasing others?" 

She laughed "And freedom, that is what they all say, before locking you up in a cell, Freedom!, they shout, when another slum gets destroyed to make room for progress." "If your freedom is tied behind rules you can't affect, are you really free?" "If your freedom requires yearly payment, are you really free?" "If you kill me, you keep your freedom, if I kill you, even in self-defense, I lose my right to freedom, doesn't sound like freedom to me." she pulled out the knife from earlier and started playing with it, rolling it around her fingers and throwing it from hand to hand

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You know not what freedom is. Freedom is for the right for opportunity to live well, but if there are no laws, who can live a good life? Is it freedom if you are enslaved by fear for your safety? It is not freedom. To be locked in a cell, you must do something to attack freedom. For example, theft. You steal the freedom to have their own property. Murder, you steal the freedom to live."

"You know the life of one of the poor and broken. I know the life of the poor and broken and also the life of the stable one. I've seen two sides of the coin, you've seen one only."

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Every year in December, the Dasonian embassy holds a party for a holiday, and they don't invite government officials, they invite the poor. One day you should go and see the other side of the coin."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Don't project yourself on to me, I'm not broken, whatever you mean with that, and I don't fear for my safety anymore." Flint responded, in slightly less casual manner, before going back to her usual tone "Besides, even if I did, I could do something about it, what I can't control, is the decisions of those above me, those I am not allowed to fight against." she looked out of a window "I know exactly what freedom is, but I also know that freedom is not fair, freedom for all is impossible." 

"Tell me guard, if someone has 100 apples they will never eat, and a poor pony steals one to not starve to death, who's freedom is more important? the hoarder, who's freedom to own has been hurt, or the pony, who's freedom to have a life is endangered by the hoarder's hoarding? Your law says, the hoarder." "How free." "And now, I do know the purpose of laws, but my problem is those like yourself, who are above the law, because you are the law. If I take your apple, it's stealing, if you take my apple, it's confiscation." 

She threw the knife into the air and caught it when it came down "And I think I'll pass on the party, better leave that for those who actually need it, as little as a once a year thing helps." 

 

 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"That's simple. Whoever owns something owns that thing and can do what they like. Sure, being greedy says poorly towards them but, if we allowed theft everyone would be stealing."

"Freedom is the opportunity to live a good life. And opportunity you throw away. Here you are given freedom and you throw it in our face."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Your definition of a good life." Flint pointed out "My definition doesn't include being in the whims of those richer than you." she chuckled "It is always the more better off individuals complaining about how ungrateful we lessers are, like we should be grateful for the crumbs of the bread, when you bought the farm and tripled the price."  she held the knife in her hand and looked at it "You may have been like me at some point in your life, but it is clear you have lost that part of yourself, forgotten where you come from." "And frankly, I do not wish to become like you, someone who would take a meal from starving creature just because some rich guy paid equivalent of nothing for it first." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Lost? No. I've found my way."

"What did you do to impact this world? Will history remember you? Will anyone remember you? No, you're a known menace now but once you're gone, people will forget you."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"You assume everyone wants to be remembered" Flint said, rolling the knife around her finger "You are wrong." she suddenly did a throwing motion towards Somnus with the knife, though obviously she didn't actually throw it, be it because she wasn't planning to, or because she couldn't, it was hard to tell, "I actually went back home with the sole purpose of destroying any mention of my original name, they even had it on a memorial if you can believe it, such sanctimonious nonsense, nobody actually cared about me, I broke off my name from it and now it just says Unknown." "I don't need the validation of others to be happy, especially not after I'm dead, because...well, I'd be dead, dead don't care much about anything now do they?" she did the motion again, this time actually throwing the knife, and until Somnus moved himself in the way, it would fly past him, close, but not close enough to hit without him moving towards it. This was merely a test from Flint's part, not that Somnus would have a way to guess her motives. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 929]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I guess I won't be able to change your mind, just don't bother me through this alright?"

Somnus would catch the knife and attempt to throw it out the window.

"You lost your weapon privileges."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,805]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Would you change your mind just because someone you just met said you are wrong?" Flint pointed out as a conclusion, one had to remember that everyone thought they were the ones in the right, and like someone like Somnus wouldn't start burning down buildings just because someone told it was fun, someone like Flint wouldn't stop burning buildings just because some guard said it's wrong.

As for the knife, throwing it out of the window would be no trouble, in fact, Flint didn't even try to stop it, instead she just watched it happen. After it though, Flint smirked at Somnus, rising her hand and putting it in position where the top of her hand was towards him, she then moved her other hand above that hand, and moved her fingers like some cheap street magician, before putting them behind the hand, and slowly pulling out two knifes identical to the one that was just thrown out of the window. "I have plenty"