Veea was… never truly gifted in the overall subject of history. Especially a history she didn’t call her own. Even when she was first taken in by her guardians, Spitfire and Sapphire Shores, and given a tutor before going into a private high school, it was tough to get over the obvious differences in culture. Like, how in Equestria was she supposed to take a society seriously when they divided themselves by the way they went about life? Pegasi are rulers of the sky, Earth Ponies are rulers of the earth, and Unicorns have power over magic. Wouldn’t it be more strategically to use each other’s differences to their advantage? Especially in the pegasi, unicorn, and earth pony divides back before Equestria’s founding.


Changelings would have never done something so petty. Those in the changeling hive, at least from what Veea had been told in the past about changeling history, would have done just that. Those of the changelings who were more tactical on the ground would stealthily attack from bellow. Changelings who are best fit in the sky would attack from above. It wasn’t that difficult. At least to Veea. So how was she supposed to take pony culture seriously?


Well. Despite Veea’s abject confusion on the whole pony history, magic, and so on, she had to keep her cover to those in her class and follow along as much as she could under the alias Brass Hoof. Though this may sound easy in theory, it was not nearly as easy in practice. It became pretty clear to the class teachers in most of Veea’s classes that she had been struggling not only to follow the material but also to pay attention in class. With this small… well… large setback, Veea was given yet another tutor. Though, this time, this tutor would be a lot more hands-on, seeing that they were apart of most of the classes she was in. Not only that, but they were much more inept when it came to the subjects being taught.


This pony in charge of teaching Veea was a mare known by most as Duchess Day. A mostly quiet and teacher’s pet like mare who often found herself as the butt end of the occasional joke about that very characteristic. Duchess was in charge of getting Veea to focus in class. This was mostly because of the Teacher’s assignment of Duchess to this role. If Veea had the choice, she’d most likely stubbornly disagree. Especially when she was forced to keep undercover even longer than the school day. She could show herself to her classmate, but that would require a lot more trust on Veea’s part. Trust that she most certainly didn’t have.


So, as the class came to an end, Veea was approached by Duchess and the teacher, having been introduced to her new tutor and given a more strict yet caring talking to by the teacher explaining the situation and how this was ‘all for the greater good for her grades’, Duchess and Veea had set a time to meet for tutoring. This, of course, was set that afternoon in Veea’s house. Though, she didn’t have much of a choice seeing as Duchess assured her that if they were to head to her house, Veea would be bombarded by her mother with more questions than they had time to go through and would have much time to study.


And so, as Veea sat in her home waiting for that dreaded bell to ring, her waiting would soon come to an end when that very doorbell rang. Veea’s rugged ears perked up, getting up from the couch and shook herself into attention, taking a breath and putting on her disguise as her more silent, back of the class pony self that most of her classmates, most likely including Duchess, would know.


After a moment, Veea came to the door with that same, unamused look, opening the door with her hoof, pressing the handle down, and pulling the door open.


“Oh, it’s you” Veea said blandly. This caused Duchess’ nose to pinch up a bit in a bit of an insulted look.


“I didn’t know you were expecting someone else” She retorted back.


After a silent moment, Veea moved to the side, turning her back and walking back into the living room. “Come on in”. Veea said as she sat back down in front of the large coffee table in front of the couch.


Duchess watched as her classmate walked back into the living space of the much larger house and followed soon behind, making sure to look around the large room and sat next to Veea, though sitting a bit of a distance away. This was, of course, noticed by Veea, though she didn’t say anything. It wasn’t like she was dying to sit next to her either.


As the silence thickened, It was soon broken by Duchess who thought it was about time to get down to the task at hand. “You know as well as I do that it wasn’t just the one teacher who put me in charge of tutoring you. So I thought it would be more acceptable to study on certain days while studying others on the other days. I thought since Mr. Cavern seemed the most concerned for you about his class, I thought it would be best to start there. Does that sound alright?” Duchess asked, her voice was strict yet gentle. Something that Veea was both used to, and not used to at the same time. Although this wasn’t the most exciting situation for the two to be in, Veea was at least glad she didn’t have one of the more snotty voices she had heard from her classmates. In fact, Duchess’s accent was something that seemed a bit soothing, she guessed.


Veea took a breath and sighed, glancing at her classmate with a roll of her eyes. “Yippy” She said with the same dry tone. This seemed to only annoy Duchess even more than she had been just a few minutes ago. She looked at her classmate with a bit of a fiery stare.


“Look, I know this isn’t the most ideal situation for either of us. I have had plenty of those who took my time for granted and didn’t take in an once of what I took time to teach. And although this may seem like a drag to you, it isn’t all sweets and candies to me either. So can we please just get through the material without me having to pull teeth?” She said, snipping back at Veea.


Veea’s attention was most certainly caught though. Having someone who seemed to at least understand the situation they were in was at least bittersweet. Veea grew silent but didn’t seem to object to Duchess’s plead. Duchess took a soft breath and nodded. “Thank you… Now. What is it that you have trouble with most?” She asked curiously. She knew there was most likely the chance of Veea not knowing what she needed to know, seeing as that was majority of those she took the time to tutor, but it was always polite to ask.


Veea looked at Duchess and then cleared her throat as if to clear the silence she was once again growing, then turning down to look at the Equestrian history books Duchess had brought along with her, along with most of the assignments Veea had put away but brought out for tonight. “Er… I… I don’t quite know.” She said, seeming surprisingly embarrassed compared to just a few moments ago, at least in Duchess’s eyes.


Duchess paused at the display and rose an eyebrow, though she seemed to grow a bit more of a softer demeanor than she had had just a few seconds ago. She cleared her throat as well and put herself in a more presentable posture and turned to Veea with a softer and more welcoming smile. “Well that’s alright, not many of those I help know where to start either. It just helps to know if you do” She insisted, taking a hoof and placing it on the bottom brim of the history book and using a hint of magic to open the cover of the book. She took another moment to look at the papers Veea had scattered across the table and inspected them for a moment.


“Ah!” she piped up for a moment, gaining the attention of Veea again, her ears perked up a bit in surprise at the pitch in her voice. “It looks like you’re still stuck on the last subject. The Founding of Equestria, right?” she asked curiously, her eyes a bit softer and welcoming as her tone had been. Veea looked at her curiously and rose an eyebrow.


“Uh… yea?” she said, not truly sure herself if she were honest. “I guess I know most of it, but I just…” Veea paused as she tried to figure out the words she was trying to say that wouldn’t immediately omit suspicion. How was she supposed to explain why it confused her so much without her getting some strange look as to why she was asking that? She couldn’t much think of something off the top of her head, gaining a curious and confused look on Duchess’s face as if to ask ‘well?’. Veea shook her head for a second and her embarrassment started to grow again. “I just don’t really get… why they would be so… hostile?” She said with a bit of a shrug.


Duchess looked a bit perplexed, unsure how to answer that question herself. She took a moment, glancing at the textbook and off to the ground for a moment before answering. “Well, I suppose that they each saw their own race as superior at the time.” she said, trying to understand what Veea meant. “Unicorns were said to be a very proud species of ponies. They thought since they had abilities that no other pony species had that they were better than others. The same could be said for the Pegasi. It’s also said that the Earth ponies, while no horns or wings, saw themselves as more important since they grew things that the other ponies couldn’t seem to grow. So many of the tribes resented one another.” Duchess said with a saddened tone. “I was a darker time in Equestrian history, but it’s something that, as you probably realize, many ponies are trying to learn from and grow from.” She said, looking at Veea with a solemn, almost sad look.


Veea thought for a moment. Though it didn’t seem very tactical to her, she guessed she could understand why things had been as they had been in the past. After all, growth is probably the reason not only ponies were changing, but the changelings had been as well. King Thorax had taught all of the changelings the importance of unity and love. Maybe that’s what ponies had done in the past too?


Veea paused and nodded, looking at her classmate, shrugging a bit. “I guess that’s understandable” She said with an innocent tone.


Duchess looked at her classmate and smiled, it seemed like they were at least getting somewhere. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad as past study sessions. Duchess looked at Veea and smiled with the same courteous smile as before, turning the pages of the textbook and stopping at a certain mark.


“Alright, let’s get this ball rolling” She said with certainty and assurance.




Guess who's on a god damn roll y'all!! I thought that i'd take some time between rewards to update one of my oldest intros to this characters! And honestly? I like this much better. While i did, and still like the original interaction of Veea and Duchess, I don't think it really fit the progress i've been going on with Veea and even Duchess. So i thought it was honestly time to remake it!

While the old piece focused more on their future relationship after Veea revealed herself to Duchess, This piece takes place before then, seeing more of their first reactions to each other and how they might have thought of each other. Honestly, you never really like someone at first sight and I feel that's especially the case for Veea and Duchess. Duchess is a headstrong mare that, like said in the dialogue, wants to get things done in a way that's productive, at least with those she first meets.

I feel like there is room for the original piece's interactions between the two, but that would be much more in the future of things, when Duchess starts to realize her own fondness of Veea, which is certainly not at the start of their relationship.