She blinks, looks me over, and then puts her tablet down on the sideboard and folds her arms across her chest.
"Did.. something go wrong?"
"It's going wrong. Not an emergency yet-."
Definitely giving off a 'condition terminal' vibe there, Grayven... You need to learn not to worry people.
"The Anti-Life fragment. You want to-." She shakes her head. "Grayven, that was a worst case scenario plan. Even if there is some way to channel Equestria's entire magic field into you, and even if you could survive that, I don't know if it would do anything to the fragment. We don't have things like that in Equestria."
I nod, not really focusing on her.
"Tell me about Harmony."
Well, she's a smart one. Maybe she can work out some way to do it...
"It's…" She makes a vague circling motion with her fight hand. "It's usually when I started tuning Celestia out."
"Oh. Um, in that case, how's the portal coming?"
Heh, not the best student.
"The terminus rerouting's all set and I've got it set up to open a year after I arrived. Keeping it open this time should be pretty easy." She looks away for a moment. "I.. do remember some of what she said. I…" She shrugs. What do you..? Need to know?"
"What is it? Is it just a theology, or is there some underlying truth to it?"
Heheheheh... Oh, you guys are just going to love the trip back. I wonder if Twilight Sparkle's been sent to Ponyville yet?
Her eyes widen.
"Are you dying?"
I frown. "No, almost certainly not. Why?"
Come on, Grayven, you're flashing all the 'imminent death' flags here. I thought you were genre-savvy...
"'What is Harmony?' 'Is it real?' Those are dying pony questions, Grayven!"
"Heh." I manage a small smile and bow my head slightly. "No, not dying. It's possible that I'll go insane and become Darkseid's willing thrall, but it's unlikely that I'll die. So."
That is almost certainly the definition of 'a fate worse than death'...
Sunset looks a combination of relieved and irritated, but masters herself, pulls out a chair and sits down on it.
"Harmony is something… How ponies live when they're completely virtuous. How Equestrian society would work… The 'utopian' version, rather than the real version we actually live in. But it's also… When ponies work together-. When ponies who know each other work together on something with their magic, they can do… More. Even if their special talents don't directly relate to the thing they're doing, and even if they aren't directly working on the same thing."
The power of Friendship!
"Interesting."
And not at all how it works on Apokolips. Apokoliptian New Gods serving the same master could buff one another, but only if their natures and that of their master were similar. A couple of basket-weaving New Gods working for DeSaad couldn't get any sort of boost from one another. If anything, they'd probably make worse baskets and then be made to fight to the death with them.
I suspect the latter part is mostly on Desaad, though... The bastard probably expects a healthy amount of one-upmanship amongst his minions.
"And… If they'd known each other a long time, the effect was even more pronounced."
"If they were friends."
"I couldn't quantify friendship." She blinks, her gaze growing a little distant. "I mean, I suppose I could quantify it in terms of exactly how much their output was boosted… But it.. could just means that they've learned to instinctively harmonise their magic when they work near each other. I'd have had to find ponies who'd worked together for years and still didn't like each other in order to check, and I'd still have needed them to self-report."
And that would bias results because, guess what, people
lie.
"Is that why you didn't?"
She looks at me like I've said something a little dumb, then brightens up. "Hey guys, I'm Sunset Shimmer. I'm trying to study the effects of combining magics. Which of your co-workers don't you like?"
I doubt she would have gotten many responses, other than "What the hay?"
"Are ponies too friendly for you to get any subjects?"
"Either that, or they just didn't want to admit it. And that was about the time Celestia told me to move onto something else." She snorts. "Just when I was getting somewhere. Like always."
And
of course, she couldn't have had some secret plan for you, oh no. Clearly she was just being a royal
plot-head.
"I'd have thought that she would have wanted you to study Harmony."
"She got the impression that I was going to study it by learning to be more 'harmonious' myself. Ah…" She looks at me awkwardly, then looks away again.
"What?"
I think she just realised something about her life here...
"Thanks. For… Y'know, everything. Taking me in. Setting up my lab. Stuff like that."
I slide my chair back, stand and walk around the table to her. Then I bend down and spread my arms out.
"Hug?"
Ha! Grayven's a good dad. Or father figure/mentor, in this case.
She furtively looks around, then leans towards me and puts her arms around my chest.
Aw.
The power of love...
Then she pulls back and waves her right index finger at me.
"This didn't happen."
I nod. "Of course."
She has a reputation as a hard-ass to maintain. One even Donkeys would say "Girl, ease up." to.
I rise to me feet and walk back around the table to my seat. "So. Harmony?"
"Like I said, Celestia told me to stop studying it. I guess… Over a sufficiently large area, if everyone synchronised their magic… But I don't know whether it's additive or multiplicative. And there are plenty of tail hole ponies so there's no way that everyone's contributing."
Or a handful of randomly chosen Ponies who discover their synergy through
Adventure!
I regard her levelly for a-.
"Yes, I know I was one of them. I've got some ponies I… Need to… Need to be polite to. When I get back. It's just… Not having to deal with Celestia's horse apples all the time, I'm a lot less… Tense."
Good to see she realises how bad she was back then.
"You don't have to go-."
"No! No, I… I know you said I should just.. cut her out, but she was a huge part of my life and I… Want to-. I want her to see what I've done and just-! Admit she was wrong. That she didn't.. know? Ugh."
"I hope that it provides you with the catharsis you're looking for."
I just know it'll leave her feeling burnt-out and empty instead. She's changed in the last year.
"Thanks." She thinks for a moment. "Harmony… There might be a way to focus it and purge the Anti-Life fragment, but… I don't think anypony in Equestria is going to be able to do it for you."
"No?"
I seriously hope the Mane Six have assembled, just to see her reaction when she hears about it...
"I tried studying it, remember? There wasn't anything written down that was any use, and Equestrian thaumaturgy is far less advanced than what Atlantis has."
"You don't think Celestia might have some sort of friendship-powered superweapon hidden away somewhere?"
Dammit, trying to hold back laughter...
"I hope not."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Because I'd have wanted to study it. If a weapon like that existed and I'd seen it, that would mean that she'd been on to something with her whole 'friendship'.. thing."
And you're wondering how you'd feel when you realised you were wrong. It's not a feeling you think you'd like...
"Yes, which-."
"And she's have known that and still chose not to show me anyway. If I knew there was something like that laying around I'd have made friends just so I could study it. If that actually happened then after I ascend then I'm going to buck her in the face twice."
Ah,
there's the Sunset Shimmer we know and love.
