1st April 2012
10:47 GMT -6
"Would you like some tea?"
I'm on the guest
poof across the table from Celestia and Luna. Sunset and Twilight heading back to their room for a passionate night of hardcore studying, while I was escorted to a study of some kind. From the shared sun/moon décor, I'm assuming that this is a demilitarised space between their domains.
"No, thank you." I get up and walk over to a maid who was lurking by the wall off to my left. I smile down at her as she
tries to avoid cowering. "They're so
adorable!" I look back towards the sisters. "Are they
all fun size?"
Celestia looks a little uncertain. "'Fun-size'?"
"Yes." I point to the maid -who's trying to edge away- with my right forehoof. "Fun size." I point to Luna. "Snack size." To Celestia. "And queen size."
"And what descriptor wouldst thou use for thine
own stature, We wonder?"
I
grin. "Share size!" I decide to leave the poor maid alone and head back to the poof,
carefully lowing my haunches onto it. Pony-sitting is
noteasy. "So what did you want to talk about?"
Celestia glances at the maid I just menaces and gives a small nod of her head, which appears to be a signal that she's free to act on her instincts and
flee.
Flee?
I briefly go wall-eyed trying to see whether my yellow ring is glowing or not, but I'm not..
feeling anything.
"I am interested in what became of my former student after she left Equestria."
"Came through the mirror into a small park in a major city. There isn't any sort of marker on the other side now… If there ever
was."
Celestia nods. "I have not had cause to use the Mirror for many years. I have no knowledge of what lies on the other side."
"I'm more surprised that no one's come through from
my side by accident. The portal wasn't on a major thoroughfare or anything, but it's not out of the way."
Or…
Have people come through before, only to have their memories
obliviated away? I checked Philadelphia's records once Sunset told me that the portal's end point was fixed, but I didn't find anything that fit what I think I know about Equestria. Didn't bother looking for
amnesia…
"Have you taken measures to ensure that nopony will do so?"
I frown. "It's the middle of a major city. We do
have equines, but they're more like your… Pre-sophoncy ancestors. They're kept as pets or beasts of burden." They seem to take that news with equanimity. Heh. "There aren't any in central Philadelphia. If you're talking about inadvertent
human visitors, you don't need to worry. Sunset worked out how to move the end point and it's now in her laboratory, which is in a fortified area. That's not to say that a sufficiently clever physicist or wizard
couldn't work out how to replicate the link, but…" I shrug, and nearly fall on my face. "
Uh. There's no risk of a chance encounter."
"I'm glad. I imagine that it would be quite distressing for someone from an alien world to fall through and be stranded here."
"… Yes, because you.. couldn't just board it up from your side?"
Celestia gives her head a small shake. "I hoped that Sunset Shimmer would return one day. As the years passed I realised that that was increasingly unlikely, but still: I did not want to block her one avenue for returning here."
"If you think a couple of boards would have stopped her, you're
really underestimating her."
"She was.. certainly always
determined." She pauses for a moment. "She said that only a year passed for you?"
"Almost to the minute. Makes me wonder if the spell controlling the aperture was set to something on
our side rather than
yours. Though Sunset's fixed it now; one spell to keep it open and some mana siphons to ensure that it retains power. She really is
quite clever."
"Sunset's problem was never her
intelligence."
"Did you
really kick her out for reading a history book? I realise that I've only heard one side of that disagreement, but I doubt that she told me a
direct lie."
"No, I did not kick her out for reading a history book. I banished her from the palace for repeatedly ignoring my lessons and instructions. I
hoped that after she was forced to interact with other ponies for a time she would come to realise the error of her ways and learn the lessons in humility and compassion that I had failed to teach her."
"And you had-" I look pointedly at Luna for a moment. "-no ulterior motive in the direction of your teachings?"
"Sister?"
"I'm not sure what you're implying-."
"I'm not good at estimating the age of ponies. But I know a human teenager when I see one. Your newly alicornised acolyte isn't all that old. Too young to remember that you had another student just before her. If Sunset had stayed she'd be in her prime right now. And there's somepony here-" I look pointedly at Luna. "-who has a somewhat outdated vocabulary. And the only night-themed alicorn Sunset came across in her studies -and she studied the topic
very thoroughly- was Nightmare Moon. I briefly saw the moon while looking out of the window-."
"Luna has been freed from the curse of Nightmare Moon-."
"By your acolyte? And how did a teenage mare manage to triumph over an
alicorn? I know if a.. teenager tried to pick a fight with
me-."
"Yes, I
hoped that Sunset would develop the virtues necessary to wield the Elements of Harmony. I hope that for all my little ponies. Those virtues underpin our society, and encourage my ponies' happiness."
"And it was pure
chance that you took on two magic-talent unicorns as students in the run-up to your sister's return? Sunset's never mentioned
her predecessor. If I were to examine your records how far
back would I have to look to find one?"
Luna looks thoughtful. "I had assumed that your student's presence was part of your plan, sister. I had not considered plans that you may have discarded along the way."
"I did not
discard Sunset. She left through the mirror of her own volition."
"After you banished her. And after she came to you to learn magic and you spent years focusing on ethics. And you didn't explain
why at any point."
"Should I take it then that the curriculum which you have been teaching her does
not involve ethics?"
"You think
I've been teaching her?" I sit back-. No no no, bad idea. "I've been feeding her books and equipment while she teaches
herself. A
year with an alien magic system, and she's the most capable magic user her age on the planet. She'll be an archmage before she's
twenty. You want me to waste that potential trying to turn her into a moral philosopher?"
"I want to know that you're not just using her as a.. device for research. Sunset is a pony, and whatever she thinks, she needs other ponies in her life."
"No
ponies, but she has friends now. Two of them are other magic users who have the capacity to keep up with her on her favourite topic, and meaningfully contribute to her work. Like
you used to. And a third… And I've really got no idea how
they started relating to each other, but they voluntarily spend time in one another's company so I'm calling that
three-nil.
Grayven-" I hold my right forehoof up to my right ear-. No, wait, it's a little further back
there we go. "-I hear you cry, how did you achieve such a thing where I, with all my experience of and devotion to friendship could not?' And I will gladly-."
"You brought her into contact with people she considered to be her equals, and
their friends. She spoke to them of their shared interests, and the friendship grew from there."
"And I
didn't try and make her something she isn't. Her special talent is
magic research. How could you
possibly think that you could stop her doing the most important thing in her life and expect her to remain interested in anything you had to say?"
"I thought that 'magic research' might extend to the magic of friendship-."
"
Hah, you're such a
pony!"
Her expression hardens a little. "Why are you here?"
"I'm here to provide moral support for Sunset when she ascends. And I think I'd like to take a look around. Maybe bring my children along? Have a.. look at the society that's developed here. They could write a report on it."
"We hath never witnessed another pony ascending to alicornhood. We believe that We will find it most instructive. Dost thou desire lodging in Our palace, or wilt thou return through Starswirl's Mirror?"
"Ping."
"No need." The boom tube opens next to us with a
bang. "I'll just pop back tomorrow morning."
