//------------------------------//
// Phase 1: Awakenings, Part 5 
// Story: Harmony Consultant 
// by jqnexx 
//------------------------------//

        Mir hadn’t really been sure what she’d expected inside Sweetie’s mind. She’d never been in a truly natural mind, only the highly structured ones of Reyvateils and robots. The fact that it seemed more or less identical to Ponyville at night was a bit of a surprise, and a letdown. She knew Sweetie had more imagination than that.

        “How are you bearing dreamwalking?” Luna looked over at her, still holding the seed crystal within her magic. The princess was doing a good job of holding the link open. She’d make a great dive operator. Mir had been examining the magic closely, since going into minds on her own was one of her fondest dreams, and this was a heaven-sent opportunity. She’d do a little more to make this work.

        “I’m quite all right.”

        Luna looked around for a bit. “You’re… doing something with your presence? Hiding yourself?”

        Mir nodded. “I’m reducing the strain on Sweetie’s mind. Having a lot of people in your mind at once is bad for younger or weaker Reyvateils, and I don’t have a lot of data on ponies, so I figured I’d use a light touch.”

        Luna nodded appraisingly. “Wherever did you learn the skills of dreamwalking? Even Twilight Sparkle has not been successful in duplicating it.”

        Mir shrugged. “I’m not sure you can really call what I do ‘dreamwalking’ as you do it. All I can say is that there’s a whole industry that does something similar, although we’re only able to do it for artificial minds. I’m sure if I introduced you to Sasha, she’d figure out how to do it for anyone in a day’s time.”

        Luna paused for a moment. “Then what protects the dreams of your humans from outside influences? What watches over them for madness and despair?”

        Mir shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. There’s not much outside influence floating around for them, but some people have tried to work on the second part. Anyway, I think I’ve isolated the spot we need to go to.”

        She glared at the ground, and the dirt yielded to her scrutiny by shifting into purple  smoke.  After a few moments, it produced a hole in the ground, leading to what appeared as still more night sky.

        Luna leaned in for a look. “You wish to go deeper? Very well.”

        Mir nodded. “The basal triangulum should be pretty low, it’s mostly reflex actions. Princesses first.”

        Luna dove in, then spread her wings and hovered below. “Follow quickly.”

        Mir lept in. As she fell, shadowy smoke coalesced around her back into a pair of inky smoke wings. She spread them into a soaring position, then banked left into a spiral down. “Okay, it should be straight down a bit more.”





        “Here we are.” Mir came to a halt on a large expanse of triangular prism blocks. Both above them on the ‘ceiling’ and below on the floor neat piles of blocks (all equilateral, Mir noted) seemed to stretch to the ‘horizon.’ After regarding the pattern of the blocks (all the edges aligned precisely as well), she waved her forehoof and announced, “You can just drop it off anywhere here.”

        Luna nodded and set the crystal down. As she did, new blocks began to grow from the ground, forming a cubby for it. They both turned to watch, and the sides of the cubby slid while the crystal slowly levitated on its own, until it seemed to be hovering above an altar.

        Mir’s face had gone slack with astonishment. “I must admit, I hadn’t expected that. It seems her subconscious is accepting this more easily than I thought.” Around her, the blocks began to change color from white to red.

        Luna surveyed the reddening blocks, eyes slightly widened. “Is this a problem? I have never seen anything like this happen.”

        Mir pondered for a moment. “I don’t think so.” As  Luna turned to look at her, she noticed another change in the environment. “Oh, there we go. They seem to be turning back… mostly.” Indeed, many of the blocks were returning to their previous white color. Some, however, stayed red, and the wavefront of change was still sweeping outward in the distance. A smaller number were beginning to turn blue.

        She pursed her upper lip. “I’ve never seen something like this before. If you want to shut it down now, I’ll understand.”

        Luna thought for a moment (it would be fairly easy to grab the crystal to establish a symbolic hold, then exit), looking at the nearest red block, then back to the crystal. “No. I have a hypothesis as to the cause of this: Sweetie’s mind is assimilating knowledge she has gained in the past about this.”

        “Huh.” Mir looked around. “That seems to be it, I taught her about red and blue song magic. It’s nice working with an expert instead of a pack of adventurers.”

Luna smiled at the compliment, but continued surveying the scene. “She must want this ’song magic’ strongly. I saw her desire to be helpful when I visited her dreams in the past, and her belief that her help was not needed.”

        Mir nodded. “I didn’t think she wanted it quite that strongly, but that fits with these reactions. Her parents want her to find her place in the world, and I thought this might be it. It’d be a way to help which no other pony possessed.”

        Luna turned back towards the crystal, hovering above its altar. A smaller red crystal had begun to grow from it, and another bluish one on the other side. “Are those the ‘basic’ spells you mentioned?”

        Mir nodded. “Yeah. Sweetie’s subconscious feelings are merging into the spell matrix, to determine what sort of construct will manifest to mark the function.”

        Luna raised an eyebrow. “Why does it need to do that?”

        Mir shrugged her shoulders. “It’s part of Reyvateil design from before my time. I’d think it’s because our imaginations have trouble with abstract forces, so we imagine something doing the thing we need done.”

        The princess nodded. “That makes sense, I suppose.”

        “Supposedly the constructs – that’s the word we use for the visual bits – relate to how we feel about what we’re accomplishing.” Mir straightened up a bit and lifted her head. It reminded Luna slightly of Twilight Sparkle explaining some advance in magical theory. “Say you’re assailing an enemy with your magic. If you’re manifesting a gossipy woman who smashes the enemy with her immensely powerful voice and giant block letters, it might mean you feel that gossip is especially hurtful to you.”

        Luna raised one eyebrow. “Is that something you’ve seen before?”

        Mir shrugged. “No comment.”

        “In any case…” Luna lay down on the dream-ground, folding her legs under herself, “...I wish to hear more about you. I’ve never been able to have a conversation with a construct – here I mean a solid creature constructed artificially with magic – before."

        Mir scrunched up her face. “I think that the two different meanings of ‘construct’ we have are going to cause a problem. Why don’t you just call me a Reyvateil?”

        Luna nodded. “So a Reyvateil is a type of thinking, feeling being, created using magic?”

        “More or less. Humans can’t use magic, so they had to build us the hard way.”

        “Twilight Sparkle said they could not. I’m quite surprised they found another way to make new kinds of life.”

        “One thing I’ll say for humans: they don’t know when to quit. The resources put into the development of Reyvateils would stagger your imagination. Between the theory, the validation, the construction of the Tower and its support systems, and the operation of the systems, probably a million man-years were spent. Of course I wasn’t there for any of it, so I’d have to ask Shurelia for the exact numbers.

        “They created Reyvateils because they knew magic existed, but couldn’t control it themselves. Since they knew that magic was mediated most efficiently by emotions, whatever they created had to be capable of feeling them. So they created us in their image, mostly.”

        “Mostly?” Luna hadn’t seen Mir’s normal form, but Ayatane looked like she’d expect a human to look.

        “There are slight differences between the male and female brain in humans, so they only validated it with female-type brains to save money. Thus, Reyvateils are female-only.” Mir glanced over to the crystal. “Ah, the songs are ready.”

        Luna turned to the crystal hovering above its altar. It was now orbited by two smaller crystals, one red and one blue.

        Mir turned back to Luna and stood up. “If you like, we can lea–” The ground suddenly interrupted them, as a red line shot out from the altar off into the distance. “Huh.” Mir stared down at the line. “I think we should check that out. Follow it?”

        Luna nodded. “Indeed.”





        Luna wasn’t really sure where this mental journey was going. It felt like it had been far too long already, and there was no end in sight. Just a valley in the midst of a plain of stacked blocks, arranged in neat rows. There wasn’t any feeling of wrongness, just a feeling that they’d gone further through the mind than you should be able to go in any one direction – if that even made sense.

        Maybe it didn’t.

        Mir was leading the way, walking ahead and slightly to the left of the princess. Luna’s mind wandered a bit to the mark she bore. It was rather odd. Mir was a construct built to imitate a human, neither of which naturally had cutie marks. It certainly seemed to be a cutie mark, since it was apparently part of her self-image to persist into the dream. It consisted of a dark purple starburst with a superimposed red musical note.

        Well, she did want to know more about her. “Reyvateils don’t normally have cutie marks, do they?”

        “No.” Mir didn’t look away from the line.

        Luna peered closer at the mark. It was a bit impolite, but royalty had its privileges, and she wondered what a dark purple starburst meant. Back when she’d… left, the starburst was symbolic of friendship. Red or reddish purple indicated a transcendental understanding. Blue indicated a talent for calming. Other colors existed, but had less strong associations. On the other hand, it could also indicate a talent for magic. Red indicated speed at learning, and otherwise the mark was so rare that no common associations were known. What could a dark purple starburst mean? It didn’t seem to be dark magic; thanks to Sombra and the Nightmare, she’d know its foul taint instantly. The red musical note was odd too. The color combination might mean something, or… “Mir Fehu Eoria ArTonelico.”

        Mir halted instantly. Luna stared down at her own lips, for the words had come unbidden to her, as she stared at the cutie mark.

        “I told you not to mention that.” Mir stopped walking, but didn’t turn around.

        “Uh…” Luna was sweating. She’d been caught snooping. “I was trying to figure out what your cutie mark meant when it popped into my head unbidden.” She straightened slightly. “It is the right of a princess to inspect the marks of her subjects, that she may know their special talents.”

        Mir nodded slowly. “Well. I don’t know what it’s for, but never refer to me that way. I am not subordinate to my sister.”

        Luna nodded. The details were memorized: she could puzzle over what part of that indicated subordination later. It might be good to get a small amount more information, if she could do so. “Very well. Could you tell me about your sister? Is she a Reyvateil like you?”

        Mir turned and resumed walking. “My sister is a fool,” she stated flatly. No elaboration seemed to be in the offering.

        Mir’s disdain for her sister troubled Luna, but it was better than arguing. Whatever drama had occurred between Mir and her sister wasn’t Luna’s to poke at unless it became relevant to what they were doing. Three Goddesses knew she wouldn’t want ponies discussing her past with her sister in front of her.

        She resumed contemplating the mark. Perhaps… “If you do not mind my asking, why were you built?”

        Mir stopped once again. Rather than become angry, she seemed to shrink and sag. “I was… built for a bad purpose.”

        “Is that why you wished to avoid discussing the past?”

        “Yes.” Mir resumed walking, staring straight ahead at where the path met the ‘horizon.’

        “Do you continue to carry out your function?”

        “I never did. It was too abominable.”

        “Well, then you should feel pride. Standing up to one’s… creators like that for what is right is a laudable act.”

        Luna barely saw the spin in time. Mir turned in place on her back hooves with surprising speed and shoved Luna back with both front hooves.

Luna managed to loosen up and roll with the impact as Mir rebounded from the shove and unsteadily wobbled back down onto four hooves. Instead of any followup, Mir lowered her head and closed her eyes. “STOP TALKING!” Tears flowed from her eyes as she steadied herself. “YOU KNOW NOTHING!” 

Realizing it was an emotional outburst rather than a real attack, Luna steadied herself and observed. Mir didn’t move for a moment, then flopped down, threw a foreleg over her head, and cried. 

Luna stood, then moved closer to Mir. She nuzzled her, which produced nothing more than a soft sob. That not provoking a reaction, she aligned herself next to the smaller pony and lay down, draping a wing over her. Mir still didn’t react.

        “I offer my apology. I recognize I have intruded into something too personal.”

        “You’re just ignorant.” There was an undertone of quiet, frustrated anger. Mir sniffed once and wriggled partially away from the wing, trying to stand straight again. “But how could you know, really? It didn’t end well, let’s leave it at that. Things are ok enough now though.”

        Luna enveloped her a little more firmly, pulling the smaller pony back to her with her wing. “Maybe you need to talk about it with somepony.”

        Mir gave a little sniff as the sobbing stopped. “I talked about it with my husband. Everything’s been aired.”

        “It does not seem like everything is alright.”

        Mir wriggled forward and stood up forcefully, popping out from under the wing, and turned her head to look Luna in the eye. “I said everything's been aired. Nothing can make everything alright again, but that’s the way it is.”

        As Mir turned around and resumed following the red line, Luna heard her whisper under her breath, “Dammit. Something about her is bringing it up again.”





        He’d almost finished. The ten orbs stood arrayed about him, and dim sparks of purple and green were visible in their depths. Each of them stood on a cushion, nine of them now black and the last still purple. He’d have to give her the purple one. No modifications. No mind magic. She’d notice. But the other nine would be enough.





        For the first time in… Mir wasn’t quite sure how long, the landscape wasn’t the same. Up ahead there was a bend in the valley, and a rise blocking her view of what was beyond the bend. Maybe Luna knew. “Luna, how long have we been walking?”

        “One hundred and three seconds.”

        “Huh?” Mir came to a halt ahead of her. “It feels like we’ve been walking for hours.”

        “Yes,” Luna looked off into the distance, “It does seem like that when one is in a dream. Time, however, is not constant here. I have learned to use this to help my mind focus on multiple tasks at the same time. As I do this, the main part of my mind and my body fly over the woods, patrolling the physical realm as I simultaneously patrol the spiritual one.”

        “That… seems pretty impressive.” Mir was grinning slightly. “Is that a skill you picked up, or is it some special destined magic thing?”

        Luna arched an eyebrow, contemplating Mir’s request. “It took me two centuries of practice to do this.”

        “Rrrhhhhgggh.” Mir sighed through her teeth and continued walking. “I’m afraid I won’t quite have enough time. Let’s just see whatever Sweetie’s unconscious mind wants.” She raced ahead along the path.

        Luna followed at a more sedate pace, which meant she saw Mir standing still and staring up before she saw what Mir was staring at. “The Tree of Harmony?”

        In front of them floated a gigantic, empty picture frame. It was square, looked to be made of roots (or perhaps carved to resemble roots) and loomed over them. Behind it was the Tree of Harmony, looking exactly as it had when Luna had seen it after being freed from the plundervine. Her first thought was to how it could ‘be’ here. Sweetie hadn’t been to it as far as she knew, and the resemblance was too exact to be based on descriptions. She hadn’t allowed the press access to the Tree, and guard patrols covered its area. As she was pondering this, the red line suddenly shot out forward to the base of the tree.

        “It’s communicating.” Mir stared down at the red line. 

Luna couldn’t seem to sense anything other than the visual representations she was getting. “What do you mean?”

        “There’s an exchange of information between Sweetie Belle’s unconscious and the tree. I can’t read it at all, but I’ve worked with data all my life. I know communication when I see it.”

        Luna looked over the line again. “I merely see a red line.”

        Mir looked back and forth along the line. “Sweetie’s autonomic nervous system reacted to the seed’s presence by preparing a spot for it, then sent a message to this ‘Tree of Harmony’… somehow.”

        Luna shrugged with her wings. “I do not know why this is. It is possible she is connected to it as the sister of a Bearer of Harmony, but I doubt that greatly. I do not feel it cares about such relations, except as they might embody Harmony.”

        “It may answer the question of why I’m here, though.” Mir gazed up at the picture frame. “But, if I was brought here to teach this to Sweetie, for whatever reason, that still leaves the question of ‘who brought us here’ open.”

        “Surely you came through a magic mirror between worlds? We know at least one that still operates. Twilight Sparkle encountered ‘humans’ there, although she never said anything about ‘Reyvateils.’”

        Mir shook her head. “We were brought here while unconscious, and awoke in a clearing in or near the Everfree forest. It seems some of our personal equipment made the trip with us, but not all of it. Although I guess the gun would be hard to use without fingers.” (1)

        “Gun?”

        “Huh, you don’t have those here? They’re a weapon that uses a small explosive charge to create a large amount of pressure, and force a projectile down a tube. They’re not too common right now, since you need high quality metal in the right shape, but in the past they were the primary weapon of the human soldiers.”

        Luna nodded. It seemed like a more complicated version of the blowpipes used to propel darts. “I see I have finally got you to open up a little about your world.” She smiled down at Mir. “I really do wish to know more about you and your world. I understand there are some things you wish not to discuss, but it’s not often I get to encounter the representative of a new world.”

        Mir nodded, seeming a little more withdrawn, and sighed resignedly. “Well, sit down here and I’ll tell you a little more about it. It’s called ‘Ar Ciel’ and in the ancient tongue – and in hymmnos – that means ‘sole sky.’ Now, I told you a long time ago humans figured out that magic existed. There was a small group of humans who could just barely do the tiniest magics with groups of singers. There was this lady called the ‘mother of sound science’ who discovered the power of certain materials to convert feelings into power via sound. She created the Orgel of Origins, which could create a feedback loop allowing you to generate as much power as you want.” Mir noted Luna’s expression harden at the words “feedback loop” and filed it away for future reference. “Even to this day, the Tower of Ar Tonelico uses it as its power source.”





        3:50 AM. The alarm on Twilight’s bedside table rang.

        “Get as much sleep as possible in order to optimize decision making. Check.” Twilight groggily levitated up the scroll, then checked off a box on the list. Her eyes were half open and all her being wished to go back to sleep, but she needed time to prepare.

        “Reheat coffee.” She levitated a sealed bottle next to the bed, and her aura briefly spiked around it. With a pop of the cork, she opened it and sniffed deeply. Warm, coffee-smelling steam greeted her. “Check.”

        “Drink all the coffee.” She pressed the bottle to her lips and began.





        Luna had laid down beside Mir to listen. “The other nations of the world didn’t like the idea of the nation of El Elemia controlling the Tower of Ar Tonelico, believing its power could destroy any or all of them.”

        A worried-looking Luna broke in, “Truly? A machine capable of such a thing?”

        “It’s energy. Power. Once you have enough of it you can do all sorts of things. Harm or heal. Weal or woe. If you really ran it up to full power you could probably disintegrate the planet, or do anything else that requires that much energy.”

        Luna nodded, stunned. “You have the power to disintegrate a planet?”

        Mir smiled and shook her head. “Not personally. I could never safely channel that much power. I’d probably blow up or die well before then. Additionally, the tower was never completed and was damaged while under construction. I doubt it could deliver enough power in the first place.”

        Luna nodded again. “Still, the fact that you used this as an example makes me wonder about the intentions of the builders. Did they plan such a foul deed?”

        Mir lowered her eyes. She paused a moment before nodding. “Yes. They intended to create a means to destroy the world out of spite if they were in danger of being conquered. I’m told it was something that humans did at that time, and that they had come up with a great many ways to do so. Of course, they ended up being irrelevant. The fact that they can conceive of such terrible ideas, yet at the same time so many good ones, reminds me that they are truly a variable species. I suppose I must say my feelings towards them are… complicated.”

        Luna closed her eyes and sat in deep thought. She thought of her past, of her sister. Of what happened between them. She opened her eyes again. “Yes. Variable… like ponies.”

        Mir snorted. “I haven’t been tortured for years by ponies–” Luna’s ears shot up. “–so I’ll say they’ve got a leg up at the moment. Anyway, let’s resume storytime.”

         “One of those rival countries recruited some guys to sabotage the tower. The resulting energy surges ended up damaging the Heart of the Land – our version of the Tree of Harmony. As a result, deadly gasses called the Sea of Death began to pour out. Within three decades, 90% of the world’s surface was covered by it, and life survived only on the highest mountains, the Towers, and the floating continent surrounding the first Tower.”

        “Excuse me,” Luna broke in, “But did you say towers, plural?”

        “Oh right.” Mir tried to smack herself on the cheek, but merely bumped herself with the cannon of her foreleg. She continued on as if she had meant to do that. “Yeah, they had built two other towers, but neither was intended for permanent use. One was built as a mere amplifier for the first tower, but the last one was actually built at the antipode of the first one, for the purpose of trying to fix the Heart. Funny story, the antipode was the territory of the guys who recruited the saboteurs in the first place. Anyway, eventually, after about 700 years, they were able to use the third tower to fix the world, thanks to me, my friends, and a little divine intervention. This is a very high level of overview but... I don’t really want to go into it.”

        “Yes, I… see.” So far there didn’t seem to be any major inconsistencies in the story, so she’d consider it “possibly true” for now. That little hesitation at the end hadn’t escaped her, though. “So your world barely made it through this calamity, and now your peoples recover?”

        “Right.”

        The fact that Mir skipped over literally 700 years was quite instructive. Luna wanted to ask about the details of Mir’s past, but that would make her evasive. If their positions were reversed, Mir would be asking about her own thousand year gap. Something terrible had happened in that gap, although she couldn’t imagine what would be more terrible than covering the world in poison gas. Maybe it wasn’t worse, she thought. Maybe it was just more personal.





        “All right.” Twilight still felt an urge to go back to bed, but the coffee had purged tiredness from her for now. She was awake and her vision was clear. This was the sacrifice of a Princess of Equestria. How many times had she seen Celestia work past midnight, only to be up before dawn again?

        “Orders for the local guard details. Check.” She gave a nod to the sealed tube containing the scroll. None of the enchantments she had placed on it had been tampered with.





        
        The line connecting the Tree of Harmony to Sweetie Belle’s mind dimmed out.

        “Looks like the information exchange has stopped.” Mir poked at the place where the line had been with her hoof, trying to puzzle out what was going on, but touch wasn’t providing any new information.

        Luna nodded. “Well, I think it is time we…” 

        “Hello.” Luna and Mir both turned around to face a third pony. Her voice had sounded almost exactly like Mir’s, but with slightly less edge. She also looked very similar, with the same face, body, and mark. The only differences were cosmetic: she wore a light-green blouse and had her hair in a tight bun. It reminded Luna of the “psychologists” Celestia had brought in to assess her “mental health” upon her return from the moon. The more pressing question, though, was–

        “Who are you, intruder?” Luna bristled. A changeling wouldn’t wear clothing to distinguish itself from the original, and in any case weren’t known to dreamwalk.

        Mir turned her head to examine the intruder. “She’s me. Just, not the conscious me.”

        The intruder nodded. “Yes, that’s correct. Reyvateil minds are very ordered and structured, so things they have trouble dealing with create a sort of alternate personality within their subconscious mind that is linked to that concept or event. I know Mir mentioned ‘diving’ to you, one of the goals of that is to integrate the alternate personality into the mind of the Reyvateil, by allowing her to better deal with whatever she had trouble with.”

        Luna followed Mir in tilting her head, albeit in a more quizzical fashion. “So… what ‘thing’ are you associated with?”

        “I’m not like most personality fragments. I won’t beat around the bush or make you go on a journey or play a game. I represent the part of Mir that wants to talk about her problems dammit and therefore I speak about what I want clearly.” The copy was glaring slightly at her original, who had begun to look a little taken aback.

        “I talk about my problems.” Mir stammered, scrambling to stabilize herself against this odd turn of events. “I talk about them with my husband…”

        “Yes, I know you do. But you know he can’t possibly understand all of them. He can’t understand them because his experiences aren’t the same as yours. Now you’re here, trying to avoid talking to the one person,” she gestured to Luna, “who could possibly understand your feelings. Talk to her. Talk to her about your sister. About what you did.”

        “Hold it hold it hold it.” Mir reared back and waved her hooves in front of her for emphasis. “She might not even be real! It seems consistent so far, but there’s still a small chance that this is a dastardly simulation created by Shurelia to mess with my head in revenge for the cake.”

        “Your sister likes cake as well?” Luna wasn’t commonly at a loss for words. Not really thinking clearly about it, she tried to redirect the conversation back to something she could understand.

        “Well, not entirely. My sister is real old, but doesn’t like to reveal her true age. So I got her a cake and put an accurate number of candles in it, one for each year. She saw it and burst into tears.” Twinges around the edges of Mir’s mouth indicated to Luna that she was trying to hold back laughter. “And then the fire suppression system activated from the candles and everyone had to flee the room Pffhahahaha ha ha! Oh ha ha ha it was ha great.” Mir’s resistance to laughing had given out, and she spent a moment with that. Luna exchanged an uneasy glance with the copy. “The cake tasted ok though, just a little Halon on it. More for us.”

        “While I admit I am… sometimes tempted to prank my sister such, I doubt I would derive enjoyment from her tears.”

        “That’s because you have a much better sister than we do. Tell her already.” The copy poked her ‘original.’ Mir’s laughter ceased and she glared over at the copy.

        “Fine. I’ll talk. Just… stop interfering. I’m trying to help Sweetie Belle and I’m trying to avoid anything that might mess with that.”

        Luna had chosen that moment to approach Mir, and now loomed over her. “Do you believe that telling me of your past would somehow harm Sweetie Belle? Or do you wish to conceal some reason I should not allow you to help her?”

        “Well,” the copy approached Luna, “here’s a question for you. Do you believe that a crime the victim has truly forgiven the criminal for ‘counts’ as a crime? My apologies for being cryptic, but I need a ‘hook’ for you here. I do a admit a tiny bit of hypocrisy but time’s wasting, and I’d better be off.” The copy sprung forward onto Mir. Instead of colliding, the outstretched forehooves sunk into Mir’s body. The rest of the copy followed into her, and when the last bit of her tail had vanished, there was nothing but a series of ripples along Mir’s fir, as if the copy had jumped into a pond.

        “Great.” Mir looked up at Luna. “No point in trying to get out of this now.”

        Luna nodded.





        Pinkie was having the three lights dream again.

        Normally, nearly all of Pinkie Pie’s dreams were lucid, the better to enjoy herself in. Fun should be a 24/7 thing, after all. A very small number of them were not, however. She’d had one three lights dream the night before her cutie mark appeared, one before the day she met Twilight, and one further one before Twilight became an Alicorn.

        As before, there were three balls of light: red, blue, and yellow. They talked to each other in mares’ voices, warm and motherly like Princess Celestia herself. Pinkie could never hear the entire conversation, but it was always about something important.

        “...all my plans!” The red one seemed to be upset about something, almost in tears.

        “...can still fix things....” The yellow one was trying to comfort it. Pinkie wanted to as well, but this wasn’t a dream she could control, no matter how hard she tried. She wasn’t even in it, really. It was like she was watching a movie.

        “...adjustments of our own…” The blue voice was always the calmest, coolest. It was the least motherly of them, and Pinkie had never seen it show an intense emotion.

        “...it’s out of our control now. All we can do is hope.” The yellow voice seemed to end the discussion.





        “I don’t think just explaining is going to work.” Mir’s tail swished about angrily. She’d never had to deal with such a troublesome subconscious before, and it was annoying her. Sure, other Reyvateils do, but I should have better control of myself than that.

        Luna regarded her pensively. “Then what do you intend to do?”

        Mir looked up at the empty portrait frame. If my hunch is right… “Let’s go back to my mind. I’ll make a space and we can see the past.”

        Luna looked around: at the Tree of Harmony, the picture frame, and the line they’d followed there, fading away into the ground. “Very well.”





        “OK, here we go.” Mir sat down on the nearly featureless white plane. In the distance Luna could see the dim shape of a crooked tower but couldn’t see or hear anything else. “This part of my mind was wiped clean by those bastards, so I just use it for simulations. I can put whatever I want here.” She gave a snort. “Maybe I should thank them for all the work they put into it.” The bitterness and sarcasm in Mir’s voice made Luna inch away involuntarily, but after recovering she sat down next to the smaller pony. 

        Mir closed her eyes and begun to concentrate. The white plane began to fade out around them, until they were sitting on a white disk in a sea of emptiness.

        “Alright. First, I’m going to show you that tower I mentioned. Here’s what it looked like while still under construction.” (2)

        

        Luna’s eyes widened as she realized the scale of the massive edifice. 

It seemed to be about 20 times the height of Mount Canter, or maybe more. Mental math indicated a forty thousand story structure. An immense floating island spread around it, and clouds drifted by. Luna’s jaw had flopped open without her realizing it.

        Mir's magic gently closed Luna's mouth again. “It’s pretty big, isn’t it? It gets even taller than this. The higher sections are even skinnier, so it’s got about 90% of its total mass already though.”

        “But… but… how does it stay up? I know something of architecture. No material could possibly retain that profile under the weight of such a structure.”

        Mir grinned. “It can’t stand up under its own weight; it’s an active structure. The power of the Orgel of Origins pushes up to counter the weight.”

        Luna considered this. “That seems most terrifying. Whatever would happen if you needed to perform maintenance on the Orgel?”

        “We’ve never had to, but there are capacitors surrounding it storing power. We could probably offline it for a while without worrying. But we’re not here to talk about architecture.”

        Luna nodded. “Your… other self mentioned a ‘crime’ that you should share with me.”

        Mir nodded in turn. “I have to finish establishing the background first. Now, the purpose of that massive, ridiculously powerful construction was to enable humans to wield magic – more or less. It took them a lot of prep work to make their devices do what they wanted. Since modifying themselves to use it on command would be hard and dangerous, they created Reyvateils instead.” The image of the tower vanished, replaced by the images of three women.

        Luna had never seen a human herself. She’d seen Twilight’s sketches of them, but it was never quite the same thing. The first one had white hair and seemed to Luna to be an adolescent, about the same age as Twilight’s coincidental friends in the other realm. The second seemed to be at more or less peak age, with long black hair done up in buns and somewhat more development of muscle structures. The third seemed more or less in between the ages of the two, with long blonde hair and a slightly softer appearance. Judging by the ceremonial-looking sword she wore on her belt, an aristocrat. Minotaurs of rank used to carry those.

        “Reyvateils were originally created as advanced song magic constructs that mimicked human form and behavior.” The white and black haired women were surrounded by a blue aura. “They would be subservient and obedient to humanity. Every aspect of them was designed to be comfortable for humans. The fact that the mass production models–” The blue aura vanished, replaced by a red aura around the black-haired woman. “–have a maximum lifespan at all, is due entirely to the designers believing that humans would be more comfortable with the idea of generational change. Or maybe they were just jealous of the prototypes’ ability to survive long after they were dead.” The blue aura briefly flickered around the white-haired girl.

        Luna looked back and forth between the two that had been highlighted so far. “I truly cannot see the distinguishing characteristic between the two kinds.”

        Mir laughed, a gruff sharp sound. “The mass-production models, or ‘Beta’ types, look like healthy human women of various body types. At age 25 their appearance is permanently fixed. The prototype, or ‘Origin’ ones all look like teenage girls. There are only three of them, so if it matters you can memorize what each one looks like. But the third type, the so-called third-generation ones, can look like any human woman. They age like normal humans for the first part of their life, but after that…” Mir’s eyes wavered. She lowered her gaze to the ‘floor.’

        Luna’s ears lowered, and her tail drooped. “A… congenital malady?”

        “Not exactly.” Mir’s gaze lifted back to lock onto Luna’s eyes, her own alight with blazing hatred. “The only reason it’s possible is because of some asshole who wanted a massive, temporary boost to the Reyvateil population. When you think about it, a Reyvateil is a construct. They shouldn’t be able to have children at all. But he hacked it together so that they could. The quality of life of the resulting hybrid Reyvateils wasn’t expected to be a long-term concern.”

        “That…” Luna’s eyes had been growing increasingly wider as the implications sunk in. “...that sounds like something Sombra would do.”

        “I’ve only read about Sombra in the foal’s encyclopedia…”

        “I have no idea what they’d put in the section where he ‘ruled’ the Crystal Empire. ‘Twas very bad, ask your elders about it when you are grown,’ in giant block font?”

        Mir smiled slightly. “I suppose. One of our Origins still thinks highly of the guy I’m talking about, but that’s just the first, but by no means final, proof of her bad taste in men. She consistently denies he does any of the terrible things he did. But I should end this digression...”






        “Anything down there?”

        “Not a thing.” Another pair of bat-winged Night Guards swung over the Everfree-Ponyville boundary. They wheeled and banked in preparation for the next leg. For the moment, they were over Ponyville and had some time to chat.

        “Anyway, I was saying earlier. You heard about what’s going on with the Day Guard?”

        “Nah, I don’t care about anything they do unless it affects us.”

        “You remember the Invasion, right?”

        “How in Tartarus could I forget? Woke us up in the middle of the damn day, we formed ranks in front of Luna’s chambers while the seneschal tried to wake her. She’s our Lady and all, but she sleeps like the dead if she’s had anything at all to drink. And, don’t repeat this, she made the same  joke about ‘did I miss anything’ to us and a second time to her sister.”

        “That’s a little off-topic, but here’s the thing. The nobles have been on Shining Armor’s rump ever since then about ‘letting down the defenses.’ He’s the one who kicked the damn bugs out in the end, but some gratitude they gave him. Now he knows how we feel. But anyway, they’ve finally got him. Celestia ‘promoted’ him to ‘General of the Armies.’”

        “What kind of Tambleon-forged rank is that? It’s not a Guard rank or an EUP rank.”

        “It’s a new rank that theoretically puts him in charge of combined operations between the two.”

        “That sounds like a load of horseapples. In an insurrection or disaster, the Guard takes charge of the EUP. If there’s a war with somebody else, the EUP takes charge of the Guard. It’s been spelled out since the last revision of the Constitution.”

        “Yeah, he’s been ‘failed upward’ as they say. He’s still got the Crystal Guard though. But the thing that’s the big deal is that they’ve settled on his replacement as Commander of the Guard.”

        “Oh, who is it?”

        “Red Cell.”

        “RED CELL!?!?!?!? That goddesses-damned meat eater? You put her in charge, there’ll be civilian blood on the Guards’ hooves before the moon’s out.” As they turned to face each other, they overlooked a cloaked figure walking down an alley.

        “Hey, she’s not all that bad – for a Day Guard at least. She can’t help that her special talent is infiltration and defense-breaking. She’s putting what she does to use for the good of Equestria.”

        “She’s great as the head of the Special Training and Testing Group. She does a great job thinking like a bad guy out to destroy Equestria. But she’s too over-aggressive. Shining lured her into a trap every single GUARDEX.”

        “That’s probably just from how she trained as the leader of STT, only having to succeed once and all.”

        Behind him the shadowy figure shook its head in disbelief at its own luck.





        “Of course, the creation of such a Tower was an enormous undertaking that took previously unimaginable levels of treasure and effort. Rivals of the nation that constructed it attempted to destroy it, but…”

        Mir turned back to the dream-Tower. It had become more complete, stretching so far up as to approach the stars themselves it seemed to Luna. Near the top-ish portion were a set of giant shiny discs, sitting as if impaled on the spire. As Luna watched, lightning begun to crackle around them, tiny jets of flame bursting from seams in the structure. Not tiny, Luna corrected herself. At this scale, those flame jets are the size of a city block.

        More fire belched outwards from seams running down the Tower. Eventually it reached the bottom, and the city around its base was leveled, stripped clean away. The very earth itself heaved and rent around the tower. It swayed slightly, and at one point even shook sinusoidally, but did not topple. After a little while the disaster seemed to be over, but then the vents in the ground begun to spew forth black gasses. Luna watched as the view spread, showing the clouds of horror engulfing the entire landscape. She realized that this was the “Sea of Death” Mir spoke of that covered the world.

        “How…” Luna couldn’t find a really adequate word. Everything seemed so small, but she should really finish that statement. “...how terrible.” It was almost beyond Luna’s imagination. Almost, but not quite. She’d seen a horror like this once, in her own nightmares. Eternal “Night” meant eternal stillness, one side of the planet baking in the sun, one side in constant darkness and cold, and everything in between shredded by tornado-force katabatic winds that would never end.

        Mir continued, “Nobody expected that to happen, but with the way humans had damaged the environment earlier, the Heart of the Planet couldn’t take much more. The planet itself was dying, but they didn’t realize how bad it really was. They thought they could wait it out forever on Towers. Using the power of the First Tower, a Second was constructed, and a Third Tower was also built.

        “This began the second age. The majority of humans lived on the floating continent surrounding the First Tower, as it was the only place ready for permanent habitation above the Sea of Death.” The Tower faded, to emphasize the floating mini-continent surrounding it.

        “The second age sought to maintain human lifestyles by making maximum use of Reyvateils. We were put to work on anything our masters wanted, and they would not brook disobedience. Any Reyvateil who failed to obey was considered to be a defective piece of machinery, to be tossed out or ‘reconditioned.’”

        Luna narrowed her eyes into a glare. “I am reminded of Sombra again, may he burn in the pit for all eternity.”

        Mir smiled a narrow and dry smile. “I see you also have a demon of the past.”

        Luna tilted her head to regard Mir. “We have not merely one, but a selection of such past wounds. Do not pick at them; you are the one explaining now.”

        Mir turned to the floating landmass, which had transformed itself into a map. Icons with crossed swords begun to appear on it, at first near major cities but soon spreading all over. “Rebellion was inevitable. Reyvateils possessed full free will, and considerable magical power. Once the idea that they could be free entered their worldview, it spread like wildfire. It became a constantly simmering civil war.

        “A group of human scientists sought to ‘solve’ this ‘problem’ by creating a Reyvateil that didn’t feel emotions for itself, and only could use the emotions programmed into songs for it by humans. Thus, it would never seek a better life for itself.”

        Mir paused and took a deep breath. “It was called the Emotionless Reyvateil Program, and I was its first test unit. As a child I sought to please my ‘parents’ and strive to make humans happy. I admired their ingenuity, their diversity and the many other traits my carefully selected education had shown me in them. So…” Mir suddenly took a choking breath, suppressing the sob that she would never admit had been about to come out. “...I created a song to praise them, make them feel happy with themselves. But it was…” Her head tilted down towards the floor, and the words simply stopped.

        Luna looked to her host and pondered her course of action. This was clearly some sort of psychological trauma, which as Princess of Dreams was her purview, and choosing the proper means of prompting the “patient” to speak further was important, though. But Mir was far too prickly:  she would not admit to any weakness, which meant coaxing and gentle reassurances were out.

        She silently approached Mir, taking care to pass briefly through her field of vision, and wrapped her wing around the small mare’s barrel. It required lowering the ‘floor’ for herself, but this time, the dreamscape allowed her to do so.

        Mir pressed her face against Luna’s side, basking in the unconditional support it offered. “Thank you. This is… one of my most painful memories. It’s nice to have someone I can tell it to other than my husband. I… tried with a colleague back home, but she’s not good with anything emotional and it was nothing but awkwardness.” She savored the warmth for a bit, before announcing, “I’ll continue.” She vanished from Luna’s embrace and stood atop the map, clad in what seemed to be a hospital gown. Luna smiled. The armor going back up meant that she’d emotionally recharged enough to finish her story.

        “My creating such a song on my own was clear evidence I had emotions of my own. I offered them praise, and they returned scorn and abuse. I was defective, a failure, a mistake. They would take me apart to ‘correct’ that ‘mistake’ and assure human dominance forever.”

        A screen of some sort appeared in front of the map, showing a small humanoid restrained on a hospital bed with what appeared to be manacles. Based on the mane – no, hair – it seemed to Luna that it was Mir’s humanoid form. Humans in medical scrubs poked her with what appeared to be rods, which emitted an arc of electricity as they closed with her.

        “So, what’s the program for today, Phil?” said the first human, the one prodding Mir’s neck. A shower of sparks punctuated his question.

        “We’re gonna try to burn out its fear response,” replied the second human. “Get it used to the pain, then make it anticipate it. After it finally passes out, the data boys will come in and replicate the memories of that over and over. They’ll probably delete some parts of its education, but those can be replaced later. After this, it’ll no longer be able to form proper memory fields in its cosmosphere, and it shouldn’t be able to develop emotional attachments to stuff.”

        “Sounds go–” 

Mir’s hoof shattered the screen, cutting off the first human’s reply. She glared down at the frozen fragments of the scene,then took a deep breath through her teeth. Without saying a word, she jumped down and kicked the shards again, scattering them into nothingness. She took another deep breath through her nostrils before continuing.

        “I was experimented on in such a manner for weeks, or perhaps months. It’s difficult to say how long, really. I was never provided clothing, because I shouldn’t have enough self-consciousness to be aware of the need for it!” Mir’s anger was slowly rising throughout the tirade, the Princess could see the it spread across her face. “That stack of butchers was incompetent as well as cruel. They had no idea how to accomplish what they wished, only vague guesses and endless patience for trying all their ideas out on their unfortunate test subject.” The snarl on Mir’s face was beginning to worry Luna. She was certain she knew what crime Mir spoke of.

        “In the end they decided to reset me to zero and start over again. I had been broken enough to actually sing the Null_Self song to do it, and I was in the middle of it when he showed up. He was Ayatane Michitaka Kirinami, the original on which my Ayatane is based. He taught me of the power of Reyvateils to shape the world, of the power of song, and of my ability to rebuild the world. He gave me something to live for.” She paused for a moment, and brushed at the edge of her eye with a hoof. “But… he died trying to help me escape. 

“I was able to live on, and had learned the ideas of escape. I fooled the humans into thinking nothing had changed, and eventually I was connected to a device called the ‘Silver Horn,’ a massive song magic facility literally wedged onto the side of the tower.” The tower reappeared again, and this time a device resembling a Fancy horn(3) rested slightly above the floating landmass, wrapped around the tower.

        “Once I was connected, I had the power to fight back. With no one both able and willing to help me before my rebellion could be crushed, I had to defeat all my oppressors at once. The entire…” Mir paused and dipped her head for a moment here, but brought it back up and looked Luna square in the eye. “...the entire society that produced horrors for Reyvateils. The entire human race.” 

Luna took a step back, aghast, as her tail drooped to the ground and her mouth opened. Behind Mir, the screen reformed to show a massive explosion rocking the tower, right below the level of the floating land. Immediately the land shook, cracks spreading along one side of it. Luna stood aghast, watching as massive cities, sprawling farmland, ancient forests, and untold millions of people tumbled into the dark clouds below.

Around the main screen, a dozen smaller ones appeared. Each showed one or more humans, from an oddly elevated perspective, and in shades of grey only.(4) Luna’s attention locked onto one that featured an older male and two younger humans – a father and his children, most likely. She watched as the background flashed white and the children ran to the man. He clutched them as the ground tilted beneath him. One of them slipped and slid from his grip. He leaned over and reached for the child, but it slid away from him out of view. The camera taking the recording was now swinging wildly, but the last thing Luna saw before the image faded out was the man and the child he was still clutching sliding away. 

As she looked around, similar scenes were playing out. A woman was trying to pull someone from the rubble when the screen faded to grey. A man was hanging sideways from a tree as the screen faded to grey. She looked around as all the screens faded to grey, then switched to a single phrase in white on black: “Signal Lost.”

        “That is my crime. The deed that  can never be undone. The debt I saved the world to pay, but still feel as if it isn’t enough. The only other survivor from that era and region is my ‘sister’ Shurelia.” The white-haired young woman’s image returned. “She forgave me, told me that there was no need to punish me for crimes centuries past. She said that maybe I was right afterall, since if I hadn’t done that, then the series of events that saved the world would have never gone into motion. That the society itself was rotten and, while there might have been a less painful way to bring it down, who knows if it would have been found in time. She told me not to worry about the past. I–” she suppressed a sob, “–killed four hundred million people in one go and she says to forget it.”

        Mir collapsed to the floor with her hooves over her eyes.





        “Oh my goodness oh my goodness!” Fluttershy flew up and over the unconscious ziz. The giant, golden-tan, eagle-like bird would be almost twice as tall as Princess Celestia if both were standing, and it could probably open its bill wide enough to slurp up a normal pony like a road runner swallowing a lizard. She pressed the poultice against the wound on the side of its neck, then applied a wrap to hold it in place, going all the way around its giant head. “Thank you so much for bringing him to me. I’m sure all the little birds of the Everfree look up to him, and that he only attacked because he was stressed by all the night flying you fellows had been doing.”

        The two bat-ponies in her parlor turned their heads towards her, a mare with sergeant’s stripes on her armor and a stallion with his wing in a sling. He released the magazine page in his mouth to say something, but his superior was faster. “Hmph. You may be an ex-bearer, but you’ve never had to deal with military discipline. Princess says patrol the woods, you patrol the woods. You should be grateful we know she wouldn’t want to upset you and brought it here after we won. I’m sure it wouldn’t show us the same courtesy.”

        Fluttershy landed and gave her a stare. (No capital letter for it. Yet.) Then it passed. “I don’t have any anaesthetic safe for birds here. If you wouldn’t mind, could you get some for me? The only place I know of that would dispense it this late at night is in Canterlot...”

        “Rrr. Fine.” The mare rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I can go back on patrol with my partner unable to fly. Buddy system and all that, nopody flies alone in the Everfree. Unless the Princess wants to, of course.” She stretched her wings, rolled the muscles in her back. “I’ll head up to Canterlot, I guess, I can make it back before dawn.” With that, she sarcastically saluted Fluttershy and stomped out.

        “Don’t mind the sergeant.” The injured stallion paused to turn the page with his mouth. “She’s normally more pleasant than this. All these weird patrols and such have us on edge, and now I go and get myself hurt.”

        “That’s not your fault.” Fluttershy leaned in a little, moving herself closer to him. “The ziz are powerful, almost as strong as Rocs but more…” her voice trailed off. “...carnivorous.”

        “Eh, I just can’t stand being beat by something that can’t repartee properly. Oh, here we go, this looks interesting.” He pointed to the magazine article. “New Draconequs Skeleton Unearthed. This one’s another all-matcher, though. Two lion’s paws instead of two eagle claws. Pretty much perfect bilateral symmetry all over. You’re the one that’s friends with Discord, right? Why don’t you ask him why all the other ones have everything matching?”

        Fluttershy stared at him aghast. “N… no no no! It’s horribly, terribly, unbelievably rude to ask someone about their dead relatives like that. If you keep wanting to talk about that, I’ll have to ask you to wait outside.”

        “Okay okay.” The injured batpony’s good wing shrunk against his side, his ears folded down, and he lowered his head. “Sorry I asked.”

        Fluttershy smiled softly. “It’s all right. Just... don’t do that in the future. ...if you don’t mind.”






        Luna stood aghast. The sheer scale of the situation Mir described was unbelievable. There weren’t even four hundred million ponies in all the world. Luna imagined there might be more sapient beings than that, but she didn’t know. It was beyond any crime ever committed on her own world. It was, however, not beyond any crime attempted. Luna’s mind flashed with thoughts of the still world her madness had nearly created.

        Her mind wandered past other images as well. She thought of the ancient campaigns against the griffons, and the constant smell of ash. 

In modern times no griffon would even consider… To break the siege, she had... she didn’t want to remember it. Any of it.

        Her memories moved forward. She looked down at the frightened faces of Ponyville. She stared in awe and shock at the rainbow of light as it came for her, and then there was a still, cool quiet. She saw the floor of the old castle, two white hooves in gold shoes. She looked up, and up, and up into the face of her sister. That awful moment that seemed to stretch on into infinity. Then Celestia smiled down at her.

        She turned her attention back to the present. Mir had folded flat to the floor, having covered her eyes with her front hooves, and seemingly unresponsive. She couldn’t sense the presence of the “Mind Guardian” anywhere, but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to sense him if he was right behind her – mentally speaking.

        Luna, thou canst do this. Thou knoweth what to do. She gave Mir’s foreleg a soft tap with her hoof.

Mir uncovered and opened her eyes, glaring up at Luna. It seemed to Luna to be more a glare of frustration than anger, which meant she was still on-script. “You do not plan to do anything like that in the future, do you?”

        Mir’s expression switched to blank incredulity, then her eyes immediately narrowed and established mild anger. “No! Goddesses no!”

        Luna smiled. “Good. Then I suppose forgiving you is the right course, and your sister is correct to take it. Forgiveness is an important virtue; punishment must serve a purpose. Any hypothetical punishment of you cannot possibly be to appease the desire for vengeance of the victims, as only one remains in the world of the living, and she is the one who chose to forgive you. It cannot be to prevent you from committing future crimes, because you have no intention of doing so. I rather doubt anyone mad enough to attempt a similar scheme would be dissuaded by any punishment meted out against you. It could only be for rehabilitative purposes, and if you helped to save your world, I am prepared to call that ‘finished.’”

        Mir slowly stood up, blinking at Luna incredulously as she did so. “I… suppose.”

        Luna half-circled around Mir and regarded her appraisingly. “Nay, I believe that the only living person who wishes to punish you for this is you. That is why part of your subconscious erupted to intrude upon us.”

        Mir nodded, slowly and uncertainly, then brightened. “Still, I hope that my past won’t interfere with your permission for me to instruct Sweetie.”

        “Well…” Luna tried to match the beatific smile Celestia used for her big pranks. “...only if you promise not to teach her to blow up a continent.”

        “Heh.” Mir seemed to be back in good spirits again. Job well done, Luna. “I suppose I can skip that part of the curriculum.” She was smiling as well. 

        “Let’s talk about a slightly related subject: your husband. You said he knows all about this. How did he take it? He is a human, isn’t he?”

        Mir nodded. “He never really seemed scared of that. Honestly, I think powerful, dangerous magic-using girls are his ‘type.’ He’s always been more worried about his friends and loved ones than anything else, so his primary concern was always my emotional well-being. Anyway, since if you measure by real time, I've just laid myself bare to someone I've only known for a few seconds, I’d like to ask you a question. What was it like for you?”

        What was it like for you? Luna’s mind considered several possible values of “it.” After a moment, she lay down next to Mir. The smaller pony stared at her briefly, then lay down to the left of her her. Luna closed her eyes, hung her head, and begun. “It was so foolish of me. I believed my sister sought to rule alone, and was determined to grant myself the power to demolish her. I created, after many attempts, a metamagic charm that would allow my power to exceed hers. Such a thing required, as far as I knew, a constant input of a fixed set of emotions. After evaluation of my normal emotional state, I chose anger and jealousy.”

        “Wait.” Mir’s eyes had narrowed in thought. “You created a feedback loop that was powered by anger and jealousy, and then enhanced them?”

        Luna seemed to shrink. “We did not say our, rather, I did not say my decisions were good ones. I merely sought to defeat my sister before she defeated me. In the old days incidents where the highborn turning against their kin for power were commonplace. I had been steeped in such lore since foalhood: ‘twas a popular subject for plays. I felt I was being shut out of Court society, and that it was the prelude to Celestia’s triumph over me, but it was my own fault. My reclusion begat paranoia which begat more reclusion which begat madness and death.”

        Mir tried to place her foreleg over Luna, but it wouldn’t go over: the length was not sufficient for the height. She stood up and managed to drape it over the Princess. “Everything is alright now, though. Between the two of us, I imagine I’ve made more terrible mistakes. The map I saw didn’t have any obvious sunken continents.”

        Luna extended both her wings, knocking Mir off her, and stood. The smaller pony regained her footing and glared at her, but Luna was lost in dramatics. “Fie. I shall–” Luna had begun to sweep her forehoof for a dramatic gesture, but it froze part way. “Blast. I would wish to continue this discussion, but Sweetie Belle is waking up next to your body. Soon she will attempt to awaken you, if I guess right. I must take care of something more important than chatter and comparing wounds. You did say your sister rules over the Tower, correct?”

        Mir gave a small nod. “I’m also in charge of security for it. Not that she has much choice in the matter.”

        Luna stood as well, then pivoted to face Mir directly. “Very well. As the representative of your world in Equestria, I hereby acknowledge your presence as an ambassadorial mission. You shall be extended the rights and privileges thereof. I shall dispatch a courier with a proclamation explaining this that you may show to whoever questions you, as well as granting your license for metamagic. Farewell.” Luna’s form vanished.

        “Mhmm.” Mir shook her head and sighed. She didn’t really think of herself as ambassador material. The suddenness of Luna’s exit annoyed her, but if Sweetie was awakening, it was understandable. She fired off a few events to pass the formalities of her cosmosphere by. Talking things out with Luna and getting the explanation had indeed helped her, and she’d re-assimilated the psychiatrist-looking part of herself. That was a dumb outfit though: she’d avoid using it unless Croix found out and asked for it.(5) She smiled thinly. Have to make compromises in marriage. Even if he does like some stupid outfits.





        “Mir wake up wake up wake up!” Sweetie shoved her comatose teacher with both forehooves, rolling her tutor’s slumbering form off the pillow entirely.

        “Mrghr.” Mir shook her head to clear the cobwebs of sleep, then looked at her student. “Yes, Sweetie?”

        Sweetie Belle bounced in place, every motion exuding excitement. “The dream transfer thing you talked about worked and I know you and Princess Luna went into my mind and I feel so alive more than I ever have before and I can’t possibly go to sleep I want to do magic ohmygosh I bet this is how Rainbow Dash feels.”

        Mir shook her head again and tried to process what the filly was saying. She could not possibly keep up with that until she’d been awake a little longer. “Please repeat that.”

        Sweetie stopped bouncing and leaned forward. “I want to try out some magic! I can’t possibly go back to sleep, I’m too awake!”

        Mir groaned softly, then wearily forced a thin smile. “Very well. Is there someplace nearby where a little sound won’t wake everyone?”

        Sweetie raised her right forehoof to her chin and thought for a moment. “Oh! Oh! The park. It’s on the far side of town from the Everfree, so it’s perfectly safe, and it’s far enough away you could set off fireworks there and nopony would wake up.”

        Mir smiled. “Yes, that sounds perfect.” She opened the door to the boutique with her magic and beckoned Sweetie to follow.





He couldn’t possibly believe his luck. All those flying rats had failed to spot him. He’d managed to avoid their patrols completely by moving to this side of town, and now perfect prey had shown itself. Two unicorns, a filly and a diminutive mare. Either one would be easy enough to drain the magic from. He’d follow from a distance and wait for the right time.