Princess Luna’s dream form descended once again onto Ponyville. As always, Twilight and her friends would get first priority. Applejack wasn’t asleep. Odd, but Luna couldn’t see her from the area around any of her sleeping family members. She’d make a note.
Fluttershy was dreaming about working with the Breezies. No need to show herself.
Rainbow Dash was dreaming about the Wonderbolts. No need to act.
Pinkie was dreaming about riding a giant Gummy into battle against marshmallow pirates. She considered leaving a small portion of her awareness to watch, but she never liked staying where she wasn’t needed and it wouldn’t do to divide her attention too much.
Twilight… Twilight’s dreams were shielded. Luna’s dream form carefully examined the space around Twilight’s sleeping form. A note on the bedside table read “I’ll handle this myself Luna.” What exactly “this” was she didn’t know, but it couldn’t be important if Twilight wasn’t letting Celestia know. Or maybe it was some kind of surprise celebration for her. That was something ponies did now, wasn’t it? Surprise festival? Surprise picnic? It started with a ‘p’ but beyond that she couldn’t remember it.
She’d check Spike while she was here - and he was dreaming about helping Rarity, again.
She moved on to the boutique. Rarity, upstairs, was dreaming about attending a concert. The male foreign pony, in the guest room, dreaming about decking a fat stallion with a beard and a ridiculous cowlick hair style. (1) You’d need to be a unicorn to get your hair to stay like that. It looked like a corkscrew. It wasn’t a nightmare, though, so she scanned about for anypony else.
Downstairs… Sweetie Belle and the female foreign pony on cushions in the main room? She sunk through the floor to investigate. The sleepers were just close enough together for her dream form to stay together as she moved it.
Sweetie lay on a small cushion between two rows of dresses, and a short distance away the female foreign pony lay on a slightly larger cushion. Each of them had a sheet of paper resting on their pillow with them. She read Sweetie’s first. “Go to Mir and read hers. -Mir” Huh, at least she had the name for her now.
She looked over at the paper by Mir. “I, the undersigned <indecipherable scrawl>, Sweetie Belle’s mother, hereby grant permission for Mir to request Princess Luna to transport her into my daughter’s mind. Signed, <fancy indecipherable scrawl>.” An additional section of the note read “You can come in this time, Luna. -Mir”
Luna wasn’t going to just jump in. Something had changed between last night and tonight, and she’d rather know what. Although the name was totally illegible, she knew where Sweetie normally lived. She could check her mother first.
Her dream projection vanished and appeared next to Sweetie Belle’s mother. The unicorn was tossing and turning and early in the stages of sleep. Clearly she’d been awakened recently; Luna could see that the writing had been unreadable because it’d been written by a pony just woken from sleep. She did a quick check of the mare’s dreams, but it didn’t seem related to the current situation – something about voting and an island. It seemed like she didn’t think there was any threat to her daughter, so things were probably okay. It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious, though.
The inside of Mir’s mind didn’t seem that different from last time: a blue void with strange shapes floating nearby, but always out of reach. The odd “human” was there too, his face impassively neutral, like a royal guard.
“Greetings, Luna. Mother has permitted you access to her mind.” That was rather direct and to the point. Neither of them bothered with her title at all. She’d asked many ponies to do that, but very few of them could keep it up. She’d probably be able to get Ponyville to call her just “Luna” in another Nightmare Night or two, but for now, not quite. Still, just discarding her title without any cue to do so was rather presumptuous. These foreigners were being a bit disrespectful.
“Thank you, mister… Mind Guardian?”
The humanoid scowled slightly. “My name is Ayatane Michitaka. Mind Guardian is my title.”
Luna nodded in acknowledgement. “Pray tell, what does such a role entail?”
“I should think it self-explanatory.” His face had returned to the previous impassiveness.
“I suppose to a certain extent, but why is such a thing necessary?” Luna had unconsciously began to wave her hoof as if she was lecturing. “Mental travel magic is unique, so I’m not sure who you defend your mother’s mind from.”
“Maybe it’s unique here.”
“Ah, there you are. If you didn’t show up we’d have had to disappoint Sweetie Belle.” The foreign pony, apparently called ‘Mir,’ interrupted the conversation, appearing as if she had always been there. Luna noticed faint echoes similar to her own technique for appearing in dreams fade into the dreamscape. Curiouser and curiouser.
“Greetings. Call me Luna.” Mir seemed already inclined to do so, but she’d follow the forms (or at least, the ones she liked).
“I am Mir. I’ve requested your presence because of your… abilities. Only you can help me… and Sweetie Belle.”
Luna stood more stiffly, and arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Mir chuckled softly. “I need your help to help Sweetie Belle. I’m sure you’re busy with royal whatever, but this place doesn’t have the… infrastructure I’d need to really help her.”
Luna’s eyes widened. She unstiffened, but instead of relaxing, leaned forward. “She’s not in danger is she?”
Mir blinked for a moment before chuckling again. “No, my apologies for implying that. I simply need to reach Sweetie’s subconscious, and plant a seed.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed, but Mir didn’t seem to react at all. “That sounds… rather odd. What purpose would this serve?”
Mir startled and grimaced as if she’d forgotten something. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you’re suspicious. It’s not a very common practice here, is it? But in my country, it’s so common that shops exist in every major city to allow it.”
Luna leaned forward, flaring her wings slightly for intimidation and majesty. “And what exactly is done by all of this?”
Mir continued to hold her ground and resumed her impassive mein. Luna wondered if her sister had given lessons in looking implacable. “It’s used for a wide variety of purposes. Tonight, though, I wish to teach something that cannot be taught.”
“Cannot be taught?” Luna abandoned her upcoming “And which country is that?” question for the moment, but would keep it in mind.
“I’ve been teaching Sweetie how to use the magic from my homeland, called Song Magic. She’s got a very good grasp of the first part, singing, and shows promise with the second part, a Hymmnos language, but she’s missing the third part, the Hymmnos Extension. I can’t simply teach it to her, because it’s not simply her that learns it.”
“Which homeland is this? And who exactly does learn it?”
“My homeland is the land of Sol Ciel. I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it, people from there don’t often come here.” Mir paused a moment, thinking something through. “And for the second question, her subconscious does, and her horn does. Or rather, the basal triangulum region of her nervous system. I’m pretty sure it’s not part of her conscious mind.”
Luna paused for a moment. “I… am not familiar with that term.”
“Hrgh.” Mir huffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s the bit that goes between the brain proper and the horn.”
Luna closed her eyes (although she remained equally aware of what was going on, thanks to dream senses). “Yes… I recall an anatomical study suggesting something like that. Medicine has advanced so far in my absence…” Her eyes opened again. “I will assist you, but with some reservations. Firstly, you must show me this seed and detail everything you intend to do with it, as well as allow me to examine it.”
“Deal.”
“I wasn’t finished. The second part is that I need you to tell me exactly why you are doing this. It doesn’t seem to be for money and you don’t seem entirely motivated by a love of teaching.”
Mir nodded. “If that’s all, it’s a deal. Which do you want first?”
“No, there’s one more thing that I’ll need. How many of these seeds are there?”
“There aren’t any yet, I have to make them.” Mir’s mouth wavered slightly with uncertainty.
“I require you to make four, and allow me to select one to give to Sweetie and three to take with me.”
That got a reaction out of Mir. “What!? Whatever for?” she almost shouted.
Luna spread her wings to their widest and attempted to loom over the smaller pony. “So that if you do hurt Sweetie, I can figure out how to save her.”
All that produced was an eye roll. “Fine. We have a deal. You can skip telling me what you’ll do to me if I hurt Sweetie Belle, I already Pinkie Promised not to.”
Luna nodded. “Indeed, breaking such a promise will lose you everyone’s trust.” (She scanned the dreamscape for a “Forever!” but it did not come.)
“I thought I saw something down there.” The night guard’s eyes locked on a low shrub at the edge of Ponyville. His batlike wings beat faster as he circled it.
“Dude, there’s nothing there.” His partner circled lazily over the row of bushes, membranous wings locked in position for gliding.
The first guard shot him a look. “Princess Luna herself told us to watch the area for ‘anything unusual.’”
“Yes, but the same row of bushes at the edge of town we’ve flown over six times tonight isn’t unusual.”
“Alright, fine. I guess there’s nothing down there. Let’s move on to the next leg.”
The spindly cloaked figure waited until the sound of wing beats was completely gone. Then he waited a little while longer. Finally he emerged from under a canopy where two bushes met. “Soon, little winged rats. First I need a unicorn.”
The town that appeared to make up most of Mir’s dream was certainly lively, but there was something odd about it. Everypony in it certainly looked like a pony, but they didn’t move like ponies. Seeing a pony stand bipedally and walk around was odd enough, but the way the hips distorted like that made no sense to Luna.
The tools they used had handles designed for hands rather than hooves or mouths, and some of them seemed to be imbedded in the hooves of their wielders. She quickly stopped looking at the ponies.
The scenery was much more interesting. Most of the buildings were between two and five stories and made of stone or brick. The style was significantly heavier than Canterlot’s, and used less glass than Manehatten’s. In places it resembled the “Gothic” architecture that had been popular 500 years into her… absence.
Luna tried to subtly alter the dream to make them stop standing in such a painful looking way, but the dream rebuffed her feelers of magic as though they were raindrops against a stone wall. That was strange. She tried poking a little harder, but it felt as if her magic was trying to dislodge a mountain. The dream was far too stable.
She turned her attention to the pony leading her along. Mir said nothing and pressed forward with a small urgency, but no running. The crowd seemed to never quite be in position to interfere with their passage, but to Luna, that was how she usually got around in crowds. She stuck her neck slightly to the side to examine Mir’s cutie mark. It was curious, but she’d have to file that away for a bit.
After walking an indeterminate distance they arrived at the base of a tall tower covered in odd lines. It hadn’t been visible until now, but Luna could tell that something was concealed there for the entire duration of their “trip” over to it.
“Ok,” Mir broke the silence, “It’s going to get a little tricky from here. If you want, you can stay here until I get back with the seeds.”
“Tricky?” Luna arched an eyebrow. Everything about how this mare’s mind was organized seemed so odd, but there hadn’t been any difficulty so far.
“Yes. I’m going to use a trick to enter my protected memory and copy something. I’m not supposed to be able to get there and definitely not supposed to be able to copy it, but I’ve figured out how and I’ll do it for Sweetie.” The mare stared at the point where the ground met the tower.
Luna took careful note of the last part of the sentence. “I don’t suppose you’d explain why you’re doing it specifically ‘for Sweetie?’”
“You said you wanted the seed first. I’m going down to get it and it’s going to be a bit tricky, like I just said. I can take you with if you wish, but there will be some danger.”
“What sort of danger?”
“Well, mostly from the high-frequency dynamic h-waves. We’ll be going below the maximum possible dive level for humans, but on the other hand I don’t know anything about how your diving-like techniques work, so I can’t be certain if what I know applies.” Mir didn’t take her eyes off the intersection point.
Luna noted that the strange mare had mentioned ‘humans’ but carefully did not raise her eyebrow or betray any other surprise. The rest of that had been nearly incomprehensible, however. “Explain again, please.”
Mir finally turned around to look at her, eyes rolling with frustration. “Ugh. Right. The, uh…” This was a problem for her. Ponies didn’t have a word for dynamic h-waves. “Feelings” would probably come closest, but that would ascribe intent to her deepest, purely reflex, purely automatic layer. “...psychic energies might erode at your… soul.”
“Pfeh.” Luna made a sweeping motion with her hoof, as if flinging away something. “I have armored my dream form against all manner of assault from the dark terrors that lurk between minds. If it becomes too much, I will immediately snap back to my corporeal form, which remains safe elsewhere. This is merely a subdivision of my true self.”
Mir nodded curtly. “Alright. Just stick close to me. Put a wing around me until we’re in, and don’t touch anything.” Luna’s wing hesitantly reached out to her, then wrapped tightly around her slight frame. Mir pressed her hoof against the intersection. She took a deep breath, and announced with a clear, even voice: “cosRealignRecheckBounds();”
Luna had just started to wonder how she’d pronounced the “();” part(2) when they were suddenly shoved forward, through what had seemed to be totally solid ground and tower. Now they were falling, an odd view of the backs and bottoms of the land’s building fading above.(3)
“OK, stay close Princess. We’ll be landing shortly.”
Luna could see very little around her except fields of strange symbols that sped by faster than she could make them out. Her dream senses told her she was in a vast torrent of emotions, thoughts, and feelings, but it was too jumbled together to make any sense of. The warning about danger had made sense, though: the river of energy would eventually eat through her defenses.
Then she came to a halt. No sudden thud, no artful deceleration. She just stopped, as had the mare she was following. Mir then drifted to the “ground,” a perfectly flat plane covered in some sort of geometric pattern or mathematical diagram. In the air floated dozens of reddish, pulsating, trapezohedral crystals, their kite-like facets flaring and going dark in a steady rhythm.
Mir started to walk forward. Without looking back, she warned Luna, “Don’t touch anything. I’m trusting you a lot to bring you here, since Ayatane can’t help me in this place. I’ll have to eject you myself if you try anything.”
Luna nodded, staring into the nearest crystal. With a start, she realized that its pulsing had a rhythm far too similar to a heartbeat. She shied away from it and back towards the mysterious Mir. “So, is this where you make the seeds?”
“It’s more that I’m copying it than I’m making it. Ah, here we go.” She stopped in front of one of the largest crystals, with about thirty smaller ones orbiting it. “Wee yea ra crannidale yora.”
“Wee yea ra crannidale yora.” The crystal responded in the same voice, but with a totally mechanical inflection, as well as a slight reverb. A glow appeared on the side of the crystal, then broke off to form a smaller, lighter red crystal that floated over to Mir. “OK, hold this while I do it three more times.”
Not knowing what else to do, Luna grabbed it with her magic. It felt light and warm, but somehow familiar. She’d handled something similar once, but she couldn’t place it. It didn’t feel like… those… or it, therefor it wasn’t immediately an object of suspicion. It was still quite strange. Behind her Mir was standing, staring at the crystal. She caught Luna looking at her. “I’m going to wait a bit before I make another copy for it to return to full stability. Don’t touch anything.”
Luna nodded and resumed examining the landscape. Odd lines in the air started above the crystals and then continued into the distance, where they seemed to meet other lines at an immense tower. It seemed absolutely enormous: even with her head tilted all the way back, she couldn’t see the top. This is a dream world, is it not?
She turned her attention to something else on the floor. Off to the side were a large pile of dark red fragments. Carefully, she walked between the crystals to examine them. She took a glance over at Mir, who had created another seed and was staring at the crystal some more. She seemed completely lost in her work.
Luna peered in closer to the shattered, broken fragments. They were clearly similar to the crystals that still existed, yet they were sitting shattered and idle. As she leaned even closer, thoughts began to flash into her mind.
“/* Emotionless Reyvateil System, Unit 0001
MIR_FEHU_EORIA_ARTONELICO
Primary Control Block, Emotion Dampening System…”
The thoughts stopped, apparently that was the end of that particular fragment. Luna examined the next.
“BEGIN EXEC_NULLSELF…”
Luna felt slightly sick. The overpowering stench of bad memories associated with that fragment had gotten to her. As she stumbled in nauseated disgust, she bumped into something. Mir.
“What the hell are you doing?” The slight mare’s anger made Luna back up. The voice was soft, but full of menace.
Luna knew she’d pried too far, violated the trust of her host. But she was still a Princess of Equestria, and this was her domain. “We apologize,” she gave a slight bow, “but you did not say not to look at anything, only not to touch it.”
Mir smirked. “I suppose I didn’t. Now please don’t examine that too closely. It’s all bad stuff I can’t quite really get rid of.”
Luna nodded. It had sounded vaguely sinister. “Do tell me one thing though, is your full name ‘Mir Fehu Eoria Artonelico?’”
Mir’s expression dropped when Luna got to the word “Fehu.” It transitioned into a full scowl at “Eoria.” “No, it’s not. My full name is Mir,” she replied, swinging her foreleg and rolling her eyes. “Sometimes ‘people’ not worth talking to address me as ‘Mir Bartel’ by appending my husband’s name to my own, but that’s usually some bureaucracy rather than a real person.”
Luna wasn’t willing to press the issue. Judging by the things written in the fragments, Mir’s old name was a reminder of a bad life. What was more important was what she was doing now. The four crystals were ready, and each seemed totally identical.
Mir turned to the crystals. “By the way, since you mentioned examining them, they’re designed to be materialized into reality as crystals as well. I don’t have the equipment to do it with me in Equestria, but you might be able to figure it out on your own. In any case, they’re ready.”
“Very well, I’ll move three of these to my own dreamscape and select one for Sweetie once I’ve had a chance to examine them.”
Mir nodded her assent. “Alright, we’ll head back to the top, and then you can examine them. cosDiverReset();” For a brief moment, all dream Luna’s senses cut out. Before she could begin to attempt to deal with it, sensation returned in a rather unfortunate manner. She was standing on a glowing circle of stone, in the upright position the ponies in town had used. She however, had hip bones. Hip bones which protested painfully at their mangling. She slammed forward and landed hard on her front hooves. Fortunately dream forms were rather resilient and so she did not crash to the floor, only stood groaning in pain for a moment.
Mir stood nearby grimacing. “Sorry. This thing just can’t seem to get used to…” She stopped speaking and looked rapidly left and right for a moment, as though she’d completely forgotten what to say next – or as if she knew she shouldn’t say what she’d been about to say.
Luna nodded. Things were beginning to make some sense. “This is the strangest dream world I have ever encountered. It is highly structured, highly rigid. It features a certain…” She looked at the crystals. “...mathematical order. Yet you exploit flaws in its construction.”
Mir nodded.
Luna peered closer into the crystal. “Also, at one point you let slip a very curious word. What do you know about ‘humans?’”
Luna didn’t expect the flicker of seething rage that passed briefly over Mir’s face. If her dream form needed to blink, she might have missed it, but the mask had cracked some more. “They are… not something I’m required to discuss with you.”
Now that was suspicious. Luna conjured a blue detective’s cap for her head, and was surprised the dream let her. “You are the one asking a favor of me. Still, if you will not answer that question, there are others.” She walked a quick half circle around Mir, eyes locked on her. That mind guardian didn’t seem to be present, it was still just the two of them. She stopped somewhat alongside Mir, but facing the opposite way. “Tell me, how did you earn your mark, I believe it’s commonly called a ‘cutie mark’ now?”
Mir stared at her for a moment, her eyes slowly widening, then backed away a few steps.
“You do in fact have to tell a Princess of Equestria who asks. It is written in the Basic Law of Equestria.”
Mir grimaced and looked off to the side. “I… don’t know. I don’t think I ever did earn it.”
Now that was certainly an odd statement. It didn’t make any sense, there was the mark, right there. It didn’t… feel like a lie to Luna either. It didn’t seem evasive, more like the mare herself was confused by it. “Let’s take a slightly different tack. What is your special talent? Once again, I can make you answer.”
Mir looked hurt. She glanced down angrily for a moment before locking eyes with Luna. “I thought you… were better than this. If you wish to accuse me of something, accuse me. Regardless of whether you can ask me something, ask yourself if it’s right to pry like that.”
Luna nodded. “Very well. I accuse you of illegal metamagic research. It is forbidden to research magic which affects the production or expression of magic except with the permission of a Princess of Equestria. I have reason to believe that this ‘seed’ you have handed me contains some sort of spell matrix that will affect the way Sweetie Belle would express magic.”
Mir’s ears folded flat against her head, but the rest of her expression was pure fury. “But… you helped me! That implies permission.”
Luna shook her head. “Stellar Wind v. Princess Celestia (753 reformed calendar) establishes precedent it does not.”
Mir continued to stare angrily, seeming at a loss for words.
Then Luna smiled, a surprisingly friendly one at that. “But you merely asked me to accuse you of something. I don’t have to. I’d much rather hold a civil conversation, since you seem to be a pony worth knowing about. I would like you to tell me more about yourself, though.”
“Hmmph.” Mir’s ears unflattened and her gaze softened slightly. “You’re still blackmailing me with the threat of arrest unless I tell you what you want, you’re just putting a pretty face on it.”
“I don’t actually want to arrest you, and I won’t unless you do something actually wrong. If metamagic is common in your country then perhaps I should rethink the current laws on it. All the existing examples I’ve seen were terrible, hateful things, but there have been relatively few of them.”
Mir nodded. “Every Reyvateil where I’m from is born with a Hymmnos Extract.”
Luna tilted her head slightly. “And what, pray tell, is a ‘Reyvateil’? Is that what they call unicorns in your land?”
Mir shuffled her hooves slightly and looked off to her left. “It’s what I am.”
Luna nodded. “I really would like to know about your land and yourself.”
“I like my privacy, thank you.”
“Wellllllllll…..” Luna arched an eyebrow in an exaggerated manner. “...would you mind if I guessed? I have a most fascinating theory.”
Mir smirked. “This I’ve got to hear.”
“Your mind is very mathematical, highly rigid and organized on a level beyond even Twilight Sparkle or my sister. However, this is in total contrast to your personality, which is more flippant and emotional. This dichotomy is highly unusual, I’ve never seen a dream world whose structure did not reflect its mind. Additionally, the syntax of the ‘commands’ you’ve shouted reminded me of certain research I’ve looked into at the Royal Electronic Laboratory. I can come to only one conclusion. You are a construct. Also, based on an earlier comment you made, the appearance of your ‘mind guardian,’ and the odd posture I’ve been seeing, I believe you were made by humans.”
“Wha wha whaaaaaat?!!?!” Mir’s flabbergasted sputter took on such intensity that she collapsed to a sitting position. “You can’t… possibly… damn. Where the hell did you hear of humans anyway?”
Luna hadn’t anticipated it having quite that effect. Apparently her guess had been entirely accurate. “Twilight Sparkle encountered them once, on the far side of a magical mirror. But tell me, how did humans create such a fine construct? I recall they cannot use magic, and even the greatest of unicorns has been defeated in the effort to create truly intelligent constructs.”
“Don’t talk about me like an object!” The force of the shout drove Luna back almost a full stride. Mir took a deep breath as the fury abated somewhat.
“My… apologies.” Luna’s ears were back and her eyes were wide. “I am sorry, I’m merely unsure how to deal with the idea of conversing with a sapient construct. The academics would never forgive me if I didn’t inquire into–”
“Hell no.” Mir’s look of mild annoyance seemed far more threatening somehow than the furious shout. Luna wondered if she was clamping down on her emotions.
Luna assumed a puzzled expression. “I did not even finish that sentence.”
“I refuse to be studied by a bunch of fools in lab coats.”
“I am not asking you to agree to that.”
“Good, because I can’t say how I’d react to being in a lab again.”
“If the circumstances of your creation were… traumatic…”
“Yes.”
“...then I will not ask you to discuss them. Instead…”
“I hate to interrupt, but do you think you could finish inspecting the seed? I can explain things while it settles in.”
Luna turned to the seed again. “It won’t… hurt Sweetie Belle will it?”
Mir shook her head. “No, it won’t. It’s one of the most validated programs ever made. I believe it will work perfectly once it’s attached.”
“And you said it allows her to use song magic? Does it do anything else?”
Mir put her hoof to her chin briefly. “It’s got hooks for attaching hymmnos words of various types, those words would be equivalent to spells I guess. It’s got the basic harmonics setup in case she has to use song magic while in danger, and it also contains some basic hymmnos words: the most basic of blue and red magics , as a sort of ‘starter set’ for the Reyvateil’s use until she’s able to develop new song magics.”
Luna racked her brain for the meaning of those terms. “Very well, even with explaining that they’re equivalent to spells, what does a hymmnos word being ‘blue’ or ‘red’ mean?”
“In my country, red magic is formally defined as magic that attacks the structure of a target, while blue magic generally heals or protects the target.”
That gave Luna a start. “Attacks the structure? A moment. Are you saying this will teach Sweetie Belle a spell used for harming ponies?”
“I don’t think ponies were ever the intended target, but I suppose you could say that. Like I said, though, a Reyvateil her age, depending on type, could have many dangerous spells, all of them more powerful than that. Judging by my research, so can unicorns, though. Sweetie’s got fairly powerful magic. She could…”
“...turn her parents into potted plants. I know well of such incidents. But few unicorn spells are designed specifically to inflict irreversible harm.”
“It doesn’t have to, the basic spell is quite flexible based on the intent of the user. I believe that Sweetie is mature enough to learn this and her mother has given her permission.”
Luna considered. Archery training could start for pegasi as early as age eight, but the parent’s permission was required. If it was obtained, however, there would be no barrier. Time to move on to the other possible problem. A phantasmal four-sided dice was summoned, then rolled. Luna pulled one of the crystals away from the others.
She gazed into the crystal. She didn’t think Mir was lying, but it wouldn’t hurt to check. The spellwork was incredibly dense. There was too much here to examine entirely, but she could trace the main branches. She could see a hook for the red magic, one for blue magic, a third one for a third category of magic, and a fourth one that sent waves of energy out in a field – probably the harmonics. The core would convert feelings into power, but didn’t seem particularly specific on what it would take. That seemed odd, most examples she knew required a specific feeling, or at least one of a few related ones. This seemed like it’d run equally well on friendship, hatred, and ennui. Still, while she couldn’t go into any deep analysis, she could confirm that her worst fear wouldn’t be realized – it had absolutely no facility for altering the behavior or feelings of whoever it was hooked into. “I accept that the seed is alright to give to her. I also grant my permission for you to conduct metamagic research, however it may be revoked at any time for any reason. A certificate allowing you to perform this metamagic will be mailed to you by royal courier this morning. You will be required to show it to Sweetie Belle’s mother. That is for the future, however. Right now, tell me why you’re doing this for her.”
Mir gulped, then sighed. She answered with her head held down. “Sweetie reminds me of myself when I was young. She’s at a fragile time in her life and she needs something: a purpose, a good purpose. I tried to create songs to spread friendship and joy over the world, but my… creators didn’t think that was what I should do and… it got bad. I want Sweetie to learn to share her feelings with others via song, and I think this will give her the confidence to do it. Song magic is an incredible experience, and using it puts you more in touch with your own emotions.”
Luna hadn’t expected that. “Is that… really the entire reason?”
Mir nodded. “Sweetie’s the way I was… before…” Luna couldn’t hear what Mir said next, it was too soft. She then resumed her normal speaking volume, but with her head down and a slight sharp edge to her voice. “I won’t let it happen to her. She’s got parents who love her, but I’m still not taking any risks.” She raised her head and locked gazes with Luna.
Luna nodded. Although no longer the bearer of honesty, she had always been better than her sister at seeing lies. Mir seemed perfectly sincere. “I am touched by the simplicity and sincerity of your belief. You have my assistance.”
(1) This guy. Imagine that hair as a pony’s mane. It’d look even more ridiculous.
2) I’m pretty sure you can pronounce “();” in Hymmnos, but I don’t think there’s an official song that includes it.
(3) If you’ve ever played a game and used the “noclip” cheat you’d see what Luna’s seeing.
