Harmony Consultant

by jqnexx

Phase 1: Awakenings, Part 3

Princess Luna spent a lot of time in Ponyville's dreams. Relatively speaking of course, in total it was only about an hour per night, but that's still far more time than any other city in Equestria got for itself.

It wouldn't be hard to guess why. Discord had proclaimed his intent to make Ponyville the Chaos Capitol of Equestria, but really it would be that even without him. Cerberus didn't wander over to Canterlot or Manehatten after all. No, he went to where the crazy things happened, the kind you had nightmares about.

She especially checked on Twilight and her friends each night, since they were important, not just in general but to her. Usually it didn’t take too long, though. Applejack and family: fine. Fluttershy: fine. Rainbow Dash: fine. Pinky Pie and the Cakes: fine. Twilight and Spike: fine. Rarity: fine, but with guests in her house?

Luna had never seen overnight guests in Rarity's place other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They were fast asleep, both in the same bed. A white pegasus stallion with purple hair and a cutie mark she couldn’t interpret (two lines of different colors), and a grey unicorn with black hair and a cutie mark covered by the wing wrapped around her.

She'd check on their dreams too, since she was in the area; Ponyville was ahead of schedule tonight. First she entered the dream of the stallion. He was dreaming about protecting his wife (the unicorn was definitely his wife, she was sure of that) from some sort of giant monster made of stuffed animals. They seemed to be winning pretty handily (he was slamming it around with a rocket-propelled lance) so she'd move on and check his wife.

As she prepared to enter the unicorn's dream, she noticed an odd distortion. Although the dreamer was clearly right there, the dream itself appeared to be... elsewhere. It was odd, but it was no obstacle. She'd enter from the dreamer's brain and ride to the destination. There was an odd feeling of resistance, but she soon found herself floating in a blue void of strange shapes she couldn't reach. The dreamer didn't seem to be present.

Luna's first instinct was to move around, but there didn't seem to be anywhere to move to. She could tell that the dreamer was somewhere here, but something was blocking her senses. She would have to cast a failsafe spell to dispel the interference.

Before she could begin the spell, a figure appeared. It was tall and slightly on the thin side, bipedal, and wore red and purple armor. It had red eyes, pale skin and white hair and reminded her of the “humans” Twilight Sparkle had encountered on the other side of the mirror.

It also was neither the dreamer, nor part of the dream.

The figure drew a sword and held it out, pointed at Luna. “Who are you, and how did you get here, intruder!”

Luna bristled. “I am no intruder! As Princess of the Night,” she stomped the 'ground' for emphasis, “it is my duty to enter the dreams of my subjects to assist them against Nightmares.”

The figure didn't display any recognition. “Mother is no subject of yours.” Frost began to form on the blade.

Luna had encountered foreign ponies before, and sometimes they had similar feelings about this. “Very well. I shall respect her wishes and leave. First though, tell me who you are to be in her head. Part of my duty is to prevent undue mental influences.”

The figure lowered the sword slightly, his eyes remaining fixed on Luna. “I am her mind guardian. She wishes me to be here.”

“Thank you.” Not wishing to provoke any confrontation, she withdrew from the dream immediately. She'd have to make a note to ask Rarity about her foreign visitors, to make sure things were above board.

---

After the previous night, the morning seemed positively mundane. Mir woke up, awakened Croix, and joined their host for breakfast. This morning's fare wasn't quite as appetizing (some sort of green smoothie) but was good enough. Mir noticed that she'd been eating less protein, but didn't feel the need for any more. Judging by the chart clumsily hidden behind the medicine cabinet, Rarity was on a diet, so it would be low in carbohydrates as well. Also, she’d have to check on what her mind guardian wanted, but he wasn’t flagging it urgent so it could wait.

Rarity was eying her curiously as she levitated Mir's glass to her. “Darling, whatever was that medicine you gave me last night?”

Uh-oh. Mir didn't want to give out information, but “what medicine did you give me” isn't a good question to answer with “no comment.” She decided to come clean. “That wasn't medicine. That was magic.”

“It looked like a medicine bottle pouring all over me.”

Great. “The visual effects aren't real. It's just a manifestation of my feelings about healing. Lots of people where I come from have similar magic, but with a different construct.”

“Oh?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “That's not how I thought magic worked.”

“I'm pretty sure I didn't go to the same school you did.” Mir figured that line was good enough to smirk a little, but it didn't seem to affect Rarity.

“In any case, it's curious. I woke up today with no bruises and not even a scrape. Even the best healing spells just accelerate healing somewhat.”

Mir wasn’t particularly interested in giving away too much information, better to give a little and not let on that there’s more. “Where I come from, considerable effort was placed into Blue Magic research.” Mir mentally smacked herself. They’ve never heard that term here, so she’d accomplished literally the opposite of that.

“Blue magic?”

Mir composed herself for a brief moment to avoid physically smacking herself. “It's how spells are categorized back where I’m from. Blue magic is the category that healing spells, spells that protect you from hostile environments, and spells that enhance a person's abilities go into. There's also Green Magic, which affects the local environment directly.”

Rarity moved her hoof almost to contact with her chin. “Hmm. The color wheel usually uses blue, yellow and red, but I recall light uses blue, green, and red. Is there such a thing as Red Magic?”

Mir hated to lie. At least, directly. It reminded her of them. They just said whatever they wanted. But the pony had asked a direct question. “Yes. Red magic is... for defensive purposes.”

“Oh.” Rarity backed up a step and looked away slightly. “I understand. A lady must not talk of such things.” She gave Mir a wink. “I understand the need to have a means of defending one's self, and that it's not a subject for polite company,” she whispered.

Rarity walked to the sink and began cleaning her glass. Croix got himself seconds while Mir contemplated her situation. What did she really want here? She wanted the ponies to not fear her. That'd be nice. They seemed to posses the all the virtues she could hope for, and none of them had been ponies after all. She could live here happily... if it was real. Well, she’d wait for some means of truly determining if it was or not.

---

It didn’t take Sweetie Belle long to show up. With her were what were obviously her parents, a large white unicorn stallion and a purplish unicorn mare. Rarity lead them to her kitchen and departed to pick up a few things. Mir took a measured breath to suppress any nervousness she might or might not feel.

The mare gave Mir an appraising look. “Hello, miss… Mir was it? Sweetie tells us that you’re a foreign tutor staying here in Ponyville.”

“Yes.”

“So, what sort of credentials do you have?”

Mir smiled, the mare was direct and to the point and this was proceeding as she’d foreseen. “I’ve been a technical advisor on magic theory to the government of Meta Falss for two years, and in that time I taught one of the current diarchs a great deal about magic theory.”

The mare turned to her husband. “I’ve never heard of that country, have you?”

“Afraid I haven’t.”

Mir knew this would be tricky. “It’s quite far from here, on a sort of floating island. Since it’s suspended in the sky, they have to be aware of the magical lifting system’s status at all times.”

The mare looked at her, a little confused. “That’s… nice. Do you have any credentials?”

Mir knew this was coming. “Well, I wasn’t planning to come here in an official capacity, but I do have some of my published work with me.” Her aura lifted a large, thick book. She opened it to the title page and held it for the family to read.

“A Technical History of Ar Ciel… by Sasha… editing and Song Magic section by Mir.”

“It’s a university textbook. I get really sweet royalties for it. When I get back I’m going to take the notes I’ve made in this copy and start on the second edition.”

“So, what is song magic, anyway?”

Mir was really glad she’d taken some time to think this through, even if it had come at the expense of avoiding the saddle incident. “Song magic is an ancient form of magic practiced in my land. It converts the feelings of the singer into power, and is capable of many effects that normal unicorn magic cannot perform as efficiently, including large-scale materialization. I won’t charge for my instruction, as this is in part an experiment to see if unicorns from… this background can learn it well.”

“Well!” The father suddenly stood up. Mir wasn’t anticipating this. He frowned at her, almost glaring, and then turned to Sweetie. “We’ve got to accept then! Sweetie, you show her that you can learn anything she throws at you! This is for the pride of Equestria!”

“DEAR!” The mother seemed more surprised at his outburst than anyone else, as she stared at her husband. “It sounds dangerous! Don’t you know that turning feelings into power is how crazy magic artifacts work?”

Well, that was something Mir had planned for. “Please, do not worry. I swear on my life I will not allow my instruction to harm Sweetie Belle. I will teach her responsible use of any magic she learns from me as well.”

“I don’t know you, so I’m not sure I can trust your word on that.”

Mir gulped. This was the critical point. She’d have to think of something fas–

“However, I suppose I could trust a Pinkie Promise.”

That was a new one. “Pinkie… Promise?”

The mare nodded. “It’s… well, you’re not from around here, so you wouldn’t know, but in Ponyville we have an oath called the Pinkie Promise. If you break it, Pinkie’ll… I don’t know, but it’ll be bad.”

Mir nodded in turn. “Since I’m not going to break my promise in the first place, I don’t need the details. Is there a particular form?”

“Yes. First you Pinkie Promise, then say the oath. I’ll lead you.”

“Ok. I, Mir, Pinkie Promise to allow no harm to come to Sweetie Belle as the result of my instruction.”

“Now repeat after me, ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.’”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Mir mimed the accompanying gestures as well.

“Well, now I don’t have to worry about you being some sort of huckster or foalnapper. I’ll let you teach her, but she’d better learn something.”

“Thank you.” Mir was glad to get that over with. “Sweetie, I shall begin your lessons tonight. Right now I must go to the library, and make sure I have proper Equestrian terms for all advanced terminology.”

“YAY! Thank you thank you thank you!” Sweetie Belle began to bounce around the room.

---

He couldn’t believe his fortune. There was a nice timberwolf lair near the edge of Ponyville, totally abandoned. It was also virtually impossible to see from the air, only accessible through cracks in a rock formation. He didn’t know what had happened to the timberwolves, but it wouldn’t matter at all. He’d have plenty of time to work on his new treasures here.

---

It wasn’t terribly unusual to find a pile of books surrounding a pony in the Golden Oaks Library. It was however very unusual for it to be a pony other than Twilight Sparkle. “Uh huh, so this substance in the helical amplifier MUST be Parameno, then that must be grathnode. It’s like a biological Carillion Organito! Fascinating…”

“You’re talking out loud again.”

Mir looked up at the Princess. “My apologies. This is all so very interesting.”

Twilight frowned. “What’s so interesting about a helical amplifier? All unicorns… have… them…” Normally it’d be the height of rudeness to pay too much attention to a unicorn’s horn, but now the stranger had called attention to it. The straight sides and the grooves in it seemed to rule out any possibility of a helical amplifier being inside it, and without a helical amplifier there was nothing to provide energy to the unicorn’s magic. “How are you doing unicorn magic without a helical amplifier?”

Mir chuckled. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you. The details are a state secret.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “State secret? Of which state? I’m a princess you know.” A crown teleported onto Twilight’s head to emphasize the point. “You never did tell me where you were from when I filled out that library card, you just said you were a temporary resident of Ponyville.”

“I”m from the country of El Elemia, in the Sol Ciel region.”

Twilight paused. “I’ve never heard of either of those.”

“Perhaps we can exchange an embassy later. Right now I’ve got to finish this here.” The princess still seemed to dislike her, probably because she got a bit too forward earlier, and she’d need to smooth it over somehow. Reconciliation had never been her forte. She could offer to sing with her, but it wouldn’t have much meaning if she didn’t know her very well. She’d have to put it on the backburner. If this place was even real, which she still wasn’t 100% sure about. The best policy would be to treat it as real until she was sure it wasn’t. Even if the pony thing was still weird.

“So, what are you working on?” The princess seemed a little calmer.

“I’m working on a translation of a technical textbook from my country.” She levitated the Technical History a small amount. “The terms you use for things are different than we do, even if the rest of the language is similar enough.” That was another strange thing. The book she brought with her was still in the same language as far as she could tell, but ponies could read it just fine. Most likely it was the inverse of whatever process allowed her to read pony writing.

Twilight began to walk away. “Alright, I’ll leave you to your work.” She ascended the stairs to her room, walked up to her desk, then looked over her shoulder. “Spike, please bring me the big atlas.”

---

Croix didn’t really like not being needed. This town seemed safe enough and nobody here had it in for Mir, so she didn’t need him around. Nob… nopony needed bodyguarding, so he couldn’t hire out. Maybe he could push crates around a warehouse or something, but that wasn’t really his style at all. Rarity wouldn’t even let him help with the shopping. He still wore the armor though, since this town was so strange. One of the residents claimed monsters attacked it with more regularity than the train schedule, but he hadn’t seen any so far. With nothing else to do he’d been wandering the town, taking in the sights.

“Cheeeep cheep cheep cheep CHEEEEEP!”

Croix turned around. It almost sounded like… a bird chorus? It was coming from a hill in the town park, atop which was a tiny stage. A yellow pegasus was conducting a group of birds perched on a metal frame. Only a few ponies were standing in front of the stage, but as the song finished they enthusiastically stamped their front hooves. Figuring that was the equivalent of clapping, Croix did as well. The pegasus on the stage bowed (as did the birds, to his surprise), and then the curtain came down. The crowd began to disperse, except for a multicolored pegasus standing front and center. He knew Mir would love this, so he needed to get the details on the next performance, and this pegasus seemed like a dedicated fan.

“Excuse me, miss…”

“Dash. Rainbow Dash. The newest member of the Wonderbolts Reserve and – whoa that’s some nice armor, where’d you get that?” She began to lean in for a closer look.

“It’s nothing really special. Just a customized version of the armor they issue back in Meta Falss.”

“Yeah, but look at this wing protection. And the leg joints. The old pegasus warriors used to have suits sort of like that, but I don’t think they looked quite as good. Spitfire wants me to learn how to fly in a replica for ‘Heritage Flights’ and I’ve been putting it off. How about a race? I’ll put on my armor to make it fair, even if I’ll still win.” She nudged him with her elbow.

“Well, I’m not sure I should, I’m trying to learn more about this performance, my wife would have really loved it.”

“Oh, that’s Fluttershy, my oldest friend. She’s been bringing the bird choir out more lately since she’s gotten over her stage fright a bit, but she doesn’t tell anypony in advance. I only managed to show up because I have awesome vision and saw her from two miles up.” She tilted her head and grinned slyly. “Buuuuut I’ll introduce you if you fly an armored-up race with me.”

“What?”

“Racing is the best form of flying, other than stunts of course. And yeah I guess stunt racing. Anyway if I can race in that old thing I can do anything they ask me.” She flew into the air and smacked her hoof against her chest to emphasize her point, but then drooped a bit. “I don’t know if anypony else in this town even owns a set of armor. C’mon, help me out here.”

Croix considered his armor. It wasn’t particularly aerodynamic, being designed largely for protection on a formerly ground-bound body. “Fine,” he sighed, “I’ll have to do it, I suppose.”

“YES! Wait right here while I go get the outfit and set up the course markers.”

---

Twilight turned her head away from the reshelving to surreptitiously observe her mysterious guest. Spike had gone to retrieve the Atlas from Filthy Rich (he’d been researching trade routes, apparently) and for now she had to keep an eye on the suspect. No, don’t think of her as a suspect. A suspicious pony. That sounds more neutral.

The suspicious pony had piled her research material around herself to create a sort of open-top book fort. It blocked Twilight’s view of the book she had brought with her and the notes she was making – unless Twilight flew over her, of course, but that’d be noticed easily. Maybe she should use a scrying spell. She’d have to be very careful to use one that can’t be seen or sensed by other ponies, and she’d need a perfectly still pool of water or a silver mirror and…

“Excuse me.”

“Whaa!” The suspicious pony (she’d called herself “Mir” hadn’t she?) had walked up to Twilight while she’d been deep in thought.

“I didn’t mean to… startle you.” Mir seemed taken aback a bit. “There’s a term I run into occasionally that I’m having some trouble finding a definition for. The way they’re using it doesn’t seem to fit any of the dictionary terms.”

“Uh.” Twilight gulped. She was the librarian, after all, but she didn’t want to be close to the suspicious pony Mir. “What word is it?”

“‘Synchronity.’ It seems to be some sort of behavior, but they mostly talk about research dead ends with it.”

“Oooooh. Yeah, that’s a sort of technical slang term for the thing where a pony starts singing and the song is infectious. It’s got a lot of other names. Heartsinging, Catchy Tune, the Pegasai used to call it a Spontaneous March, but the name magical theorists use for it is Synchronity. Most dictionaries are published in Manehatten but magical researchers are usually unicorns, so they use two different terms for it.”

“Ah. I know well the intricacies of such research. Thank you for your assistance.”

Hmm. “Where did you do research?”

“The land of Meta Falss. That’s where my husband is from. It was a lot of fun. We had to complete a centuries-old megaproject, overthrow a tyrannical regime, defeat ancient evils, that sort of thing.”

The suspect stranger seemed pretty happy reminiscing about all this. “And… how long ago was this done?” She didn’t seem to notice Twilight’s raised eyebrow.

“Oh, it was ten years ago soon. We should meet up with the old crew. I should get some “sorry I ended up with the guy you had your eye on” gifts for a few of them.” The stranger was smirking and looking dreamily into the middle distance, but then snapped back to looking at Twilight. “What do you get for that sort of thing? You’re the princess of friendship, right? You should know.”

“I uh, um, oh dear I have to go check up on one of my friends. Please see yourself out when you’re done!”

Mir smirked as the Alicorn dashed off. This one was kind of fun to tease.

---

“Alright, let’s get this ready to go.” Rainbow had returned sooner than Croix had expected based on the “set up the course markers” bit. She wore a gleaming blue metal armor, covering her legs, belly, neck, and the leading edges of the wings. A helmet of the same color with a rainbow brush at the top adorned her head. “This is supposed to be a representative sample of the Second Griffon War’s armor. Much more aerodynamic than the stuff used earlier, but also flimsier.”

Croix nodded. “Sometimes avoiding a blow is more effective than absorbing it.”

“I’m just glad I memorized all the stuff I have to say about it. Did you know that the pegasai of that era trained in this armor so much they could do the triple overhead whirl in it? That’s gotta take some muscle.”

“Uh, no.”

“Anyway we’ve been talking too long. Here’s the deal.” She scraped a line into the ground, balling up some loose turf. “This is the starting line. I put up four cloud loops in the sky, on the outskirts of Ponyville. There’s one due North from here and then we turn left at each one. When we reach the North one once again we come back here. First to do all that and re-cross the line wins.”

Croix nodded. “Acceptable.”

Rainbow dropped into a runner’s stance at the line, and Croix mimicked the motion. “3… 2… 1… GO!”

Both Pegasi took off like rockets towards the first cloud, or at least it would seem to the casual observer. Each looked at the other and knew they were conserving strength. Even if either of them could fly the whole way in a sprint, they were now carrying a large portion of their own weight in armor. This would be a good race.

---

“Alright class, be sure to review the next chapter tonight. See you all tomorrow.” Cheerilee waved to the students as they rushed out of the schoolhouse.

Sweetie Belle and her friends immediately headed for the clubhouse as soon as they reached the road, only to encounter an obstacle.

“Well well blank flanks,” Diamond Tiara snidely announced, “time to try another stupid attempt, to get the cutie marks you’ll never earn?” Silver Spoon stood behind her and smirked.

“Hmph. We’ll show ya’ll.” Apple Bloom attempted to walk around the two, but Diamond moved to block her.

“Where are you going, blank flank, we’re not leaving until you’ve admitted you’ll never get your cutie marks.”

“Hey! You got no right to say that to anypony.” Scootaloo flared her wings and marched up to Diamond.

Apple Bloom just sighed. “Is this about your Father?”

Diamond Tiara shoved Scootaloo out of the way to look directly at Apple Bloom. “Even if you blank flanks somehow… tricked my father into punishing me for making fun of you, that’s no reason for him to owe you a favor!”

Apple Bloom stared back, narrowing her eyes. “Nopony tricked him. He just walked up behind you and saw what you were doing. And it’s called an apology, you should try it.”

“I’ve got nothing to apologize for!” Diamond took a step towards Apple Bloom, her head lowered.

“Hold it!” Scootaloo once again interposed between the two, flaring her wings.

“Hmph. You know, that would be way more impressive if your wings were of decent size.”

“Now now Diamond, it’s not nice to make fun of the crippled.” Silver Spoon had decided to join in.

“Rude little children.” Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon whirled around to face an adult catching them in the act. It wasn’t an adult they recognized, but still, that was enough for Silver Spoon to back off before the stranger could ask her her name.

Diamond Tiara stuck out her foreleg to arrest Silver Spoon’s flight and dragged her to the side of the road. She didn’t recognize the strange pony, putting her into the “almost certainly of lower social status” bucket, and she could tell from looking at the mare’s horn that it was deformed. She whispered to Silver, “Hmph, a cripple coming to the defense of the other cripple.”

Mir’s horn lit up with a blood-red crimson as she turned to face her, a dismissive scowl on her face. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon rapidly vacated the area, leaving behind a small cloud of dust.

Applebloom stepped up. “Thanks… miss?”

“Mir. I’ve been engaged by Sweetie there to tutor her in the magic of my homeland.” A sheaf of documents emerged from her saddlebag in the grip of her red aura. “Speaking of, I’ve finished translating a lesson for you. I’ll meet you outside Rarity’s after sundown.”

“Thanks!” Sweetie’s light green aura took over from Mir’s red. “I’ll be sure to see you there. But why at night?”

Mir smiled. “I feel that the night sky is an important part of the lesson.”

---

Croix wasn’t going to win this. It had been pretty even at the start but his endurance was slipping. He wasn’t built for endurance flying; hell, he didn’t normally have wings at all. His multicolored opponent was moving further ahead of him each turn, but he wasn’t losing as much in the straights. Still, he didn’t like losing. Maybe he’d just been in too many fights where losing meant getting tossed into the Sea of Death. He couldn’t win by simply pushing himself harder, but maybe there was a way.

Croix grabbed the lance from his back and examined the hidden catches, near where the grip had been replaced by a strap. He didn’t have fingers to operate them anymore but his hooves could be flexed slightly. He just hoped the strap and his foreleg could hold on. He strapped the lance on, then pressed the rightmost catch.

There was a whine from the turbopump, then a brief puff of smoke from the rear of the lance, followed by a tongue of flame from the concealed rocket engine. (1) The fiery trail passed over his right legs and side but the armor had been designed to deal with this, and whatever wonder ceramic was used was keeping him un-broiled. It was impossible to flap his wings with the airflow over him now, or even hold them open, but that was ok, he just had to angle properly and let thrust and lifting body effects take over. Gotta lean forward… wait no, I’ve got a horizontal body now, lean back. OK, angle looks good.

Rainbow Dash had a brief moment to look behind her before the other pony blasted by her on a column of fire, the slipstream sending her tumbling for a brief moment. Croix switched off the rocket and flared his wings, landing hard on the ground right over the line. “Hah!”

“Rrrrah!” Rainbow landed beside Croix, growling at him. “You lousy cheater! You used a rocket.”

“Uhh…” Croix stammered. He wasn’t really expecting it to go this way. “The rocket is a part of my lance, which is part of my uniform.”

“Hmph!” Rainbow didn’t seem at all mollified. “The International Federation of Flying Races specifically prohibits all rockets, propellers, or other mechanical or magical contrivances that produce thrust or lift, or reduce weight or mass.” There was a brief pause. “Yes, I memorized those rules.”

“I… don’t think that was an official race.”

“Still! I. Don’t. Like. Cheating!” She lept into the air and began hovering right over his face.

Croix gulped. He didn’t want a fight with a local in the middle of the park. “Uh, sorry ma’am?”

“Ugh! You cheat at racing, then you cringe when I call you on it?” She spat on his nose. “Not worth my time.” With that final outburst, she flew off in a huff.

Croix sat down, wiped his nose off, and sighed. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He’d given his opponent a good display of what he could do, which is what she’d asked for in the first place. He’d need to find something else to do. It’s too bad, Mir would absolutely love…

“Um, excuse me.”

The soft voice was coming from behind the stage. He turned towards the source to see the yellow Pegasus from earlier looking at him from behind the corner of the stage platform.

She looked down and away, not willing to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry… Rainbow is just really competitive. She’ll calm down eventually. But… I heard you want to take your wife to one of my shows, and that’s very wonderful, but I don’t know when I’ll be ready to do another one. It’s just so exciting, and I can’t deal with too much excitement. I’ll let you know, mister…?”

“Croix. Right now we’re staying with Rarity.”

---

“Participate in a whut now?” Applejack examined the documents being levitated at her over her market cart.

“A scientific experiment. I’m working on a new spell and now that I’ve tested it successfully on organic matter I need a test subject.” Twilight seemed a little more nervous than usual, and her mane looked a bit messy at the edges. This wasn’t Applejack’s first run-in with this particular state. She’d have to at least humor her friend.

“Let’s see here. ‘Methods and Spellwork for the Detection of Changelings.’ That sounds mighty handy. ‘A unicorn spell to force a changeling into its normal form… Spell requires…” There was a brief pause as Applejack re-read something. “‘Ethics Committee overrode by royal decree?!?’” She glared at Twilight. “That don’t sound right!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s called a ‘legal fiction’ Applejack, I don’t have time for this spell test to be reviewed by an ethics committee so I used a loophole to auto-reject it and then overrule it.”

“Anyway…” Applejack resumed reading the document, “what’s this all do?”

“It’s a method of dispelling all form-altering magic, of any kind. I used it to finally fix that orange-bird thing.”

“Well, that’s a mighty good use of your horn. That thing was just weird.”

“It’s not that bad if you think of it from an Abstract Object perspective, since it still possesses the necessary ‘bird-ness’ to…”

“Ah don’t really want ta know.” Applejack continued scanning the paperwork. “All right, I’ll put mah hoof on it.” Applejack flipped open a small box on the cart and dabbed the ink on her forehoof, then applied it to the space provided at the end of the document.

“OK Applejack. Now just hold still and stick out your hoof. First, state for the record if you are under the influence of any transformative or shapeshifting magic at this moment.”

“Not a bit.” Applejack stared at the hoof, then up at Twilight’s face.

“Great! Now, don’t move.” A reddish-purple beam shot from Twilight’s horn to Applejack’s hoof. Twilight stared at the hoof. Applejack stared at the hoof. Twilight retrieved a pocketwatch from her saddlebag. “OK let’s give this 5 minutes.”

“While we’re waiting Twi, what’s got you into such a hurry?” Applejack’s gaze continued to be locked on her hoof. It continued to not do anything.

“I think there might be a changeling in town. I don’t want to say who I think it is until I have absolute proof, and I don’t want you spreading rumors either.”

“Shoot, a changeling? We launched those critters all the way to the edge of the map.”

“Yes, but what if they came back? Or there were multiple hives? Or…”

“That’s enough Twi.” Silence reigned for the remainder of the five minutes as Twilight examined the hoof from all angles.

“OK we’re good here. Thank you Applejack. The energy of the spell has entirely expired and you seem entirely free of side effects. Also, it’s good to know you’re not a changeling.” Twilight chuckled a little.

“Yeah… but if there is a changeling here, shouldn’t you inform the Princess?”

“I have. Princess Twilight is well aware of this and is on the job. I need you to understand. This town is full of ponies that panic at the sight of a few too many rabbits. Princess Celestia is likely to… overreact. I hate to say it, but the way the press lambasted her for failing to beat Chrysalis in a one-on-one duel seems to have her a little more on edge. I don’t want her making a show of how she’s on top of a changeling menace that I’m not 100% sure even exists. I don’t want anypony saying anything until we either have absolute proof or are ready to go.”

‘Ah… alright I guess.”

“Thank you, Applejack. I’m confident that with help from all of my friends, I can handle this.”

---

The hill blocked the view of Ponyville and that Canterlot city on the side of the mountain, and the grass was surprisingly comfortable to lie on. Mir settled in to watch the sunset. As the edge of the sun touched the horizon she felt a wave of magic surge across the land. The power behind it was immense, and somehow familiar. It did seem to be another check mark for the “real” column. The planet’s rotation was being nudged slightly. A second wave followed a bit later, but wasn’t as familiar. The two waves puzzled her slightly until she remembered that Princess Luna had a sister. She’d have to read up on her later.

Of course, the stars were what she was waiting for. She hadn’t had an opportunity to gaze up at them and just look since she’d arrived wherever this was. Fortunately she was built a little better than a human, and it seemed this continued over to her current form. She could feel the spectrum of the first star that showed itself. She knew it. She’d calculated her horoscope by it once, because everyone is a dumb kid at some point; some just never stop. The important thing is that the stars she could see here were more or less the same ones she could see at home, even if not in quite the same arrangement, and that was a big check in the real column. She wasn’t exactly going to go and calculate the angles to determine where she was, it wouldn’t do her any good. She’d need to do something with that mirror, but she had no idea what. She had no idea who she could trust here.

Except Sweetie Belle. Maybe she just had a weak spot for children. No, that wasn’t it. It was singing. She’d roll over for anyone who could sing properly with her. Her husband sure knew that. She smiled; it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Birds used songs to know who to place their trust in, people could do it too. The songs showed her a Sweetie Belle that reminded her of how she had been, once.

“Huff… huff… I’m here!” Sweetie Bell skidded to a stop next to her. She’d been so deep in thought she hadn’t heard her approach.

“Ah, yes. Did you run all the way? You’re out of breath.”

“Yeah! This… song magic… thing seems really nifty… so… I wanted… to get here as soon as I could.”

Mir smiled. “Well, first things first. A brief history overview. Lie down here beside me and look up.” A stray thought crossed Mir’s mind as Sweetie lay down, that it was easier for her new form to look up at the sky on its stomach than on its back. “Alright, now tell me what you see up there.”

Sweetie Belle pursed her lip. This had to be a trick question, but she couldn’t tell what answer her mentor wanted. She went for the obvious: “The moon.”

Mir chuckled, and looked over to the moon rising above the horizon. “No, besides that.”

“Uh… stars?”

“Yes. Do you know what stars are?”

That gave Sweetie pause. “Uh, Miss Cheerilee says they’re balls of burning stuff that are way far away. The Old Believers say they were put up there by Majesty before Celestia was born. The Alicornists claim that Luna painted them on the crystal sphere that holds the world. But I don’t know. They’re just… points of light I guess.”

Mir smiled, just a little. “I guess Cheerilee is closest. Stars are like the sun, just further away. Incomprehensibly vast balls of hydrogen and helium, they convert them into heavier building blocks of life and release energy in the process. Now, for the second question. The universe is filled with an unimaginably huge number of stars and other things. Why is there something instead of nothing?”

That one puzzled Sweetie. She stayed silent and bit her lip. She stood up and paced a circle around Mir. “Because… if there wasn’t, we wouldn’t be here to ask the question!” Sweetie waved her forelimbs in resignation.

Mir smiled slightly again. “Well, that’s correct in a philosophical way. But the thing is, in my homeland we have a science called ‘Cosmology’ that answers the question. By doing a lot of math, and looking very closely at the night sky, they were able to figure out how the universe began and why there’s something instead of nothing.

“In the beginning, there was nothing except one little nucleus called the Exa Pico, smaller than anything you could imagine. It was the entire universe, there was nothing aside from it. But it wanted there to be something. So it sung, and waves appeared. These waves became all the matter and energy in the universe. You can still hear the song it sung in the night sky. Thus, because Song Magic was used to create the universe, it’s the most ancient form of magic in existence.”(2)

Sweetie Belle’s eyes were opened wider than Mir thought possible. “Whoa.” Then they shrank back to normal. “Wait, you’re kidding, right?”

Mir switched to a bigger smile. “No, no I’m not. Song Magic is capable of creating things. I helped make a floating continent out of song magic. It’s a real thing, not just some construct or illusion.”

Sweetie Belle interjected, “Like Cloudsdale?”

“I… don’t know what that is.”

“A city made out of cloud, where the pegasus ponies live and plan weather control for all Equestria.”

“Oh, no, not like that at all. It’s got solid ground, although you could dig through it and fall if you weren’t careful. It even came with its own plants and animals.”

“Song magic can… make animals?” The little unicorn seemed to shrink in on herself, and edged slightly away from Mir. Now she’d frightened the poor girl, and would have to fix it.

“Don’t worry, I won’t force you to deal with anything crazy like that. It’s just an example.”

Sweetie sat up straighter a little. “It’s… it’s just kind of scary.”

“Magic itself is scary. Power is scary. Princess Luna raises and lowers the Moon each night. If you concentrate, you can feel the power wash over the world. The scale is so immense that it seems impossible.”

Sweetie Belle pondered for a moment. “But nopony’s scared of the Princess raising the Sun or the Moon. The only thing we’d be scared of is her not raising it.”

“That’s because everyone trusts her to use her magic responsibly. This world has had a Princess controlling its skies for over a thousand years.” Mir stood up. “You, Sweetie Belle, will use your magic responsibly as well. Strive for responsibility that could remain unblemished for a millenium.”

Sweetie stood and saluted. “I Pinkie Promise to use my magic responsibly!” She placed her hoof on her chest, then over her eye.

Mir nodded. “Good. There’s a little something I’d like to share with you regarding all that.” She looked around and then stage-whispered, “Can you keep a secret?”

Sweetie Belle nodded quizzically.

“I’m not like other ponies. I was made with song magic for a special purpose.”

“But…” Sweetie looked down and rubbed her jaw, pouting in intense concentration. “... does that mean you’re not real?”

Mir smiled. “No, it just means I was born in a strange way. I used to be just a puddle of biofluid, a sort of metallic water-based mix, until they added a triangular nuclear loop to it and it sang song magic for me.”

“Wow.” Sweetie’s voice would be too quiet to hear for most ponies. “Is there a… word for ponies that were made like that? I can’t call you a golem.”

“Where I come from, we’re called Reyvateils; I specifically am a Neo-Pureblood Beta type. There aren’t really enough Reyvateils here to have to distinguish between types though.” Mir assumed a sly, conspiratorial grin. “Although just between you and me, that’s the best type.”

Sweetie shook her head to clear the confusion. “Anyway, what… what was the purpose?”

Mir’s expression darkened, the faintest hint of a scowl forming before she composed herself again. “It was… something that wasn’t a good idea. I’m very happy to have never done it, and now I live my life without worrying about what those ba… bad people wanted.”

“You were made by bad people?” Sweetie looked up at Mir with sad eyes.

Mi nodded solemnly. “Yes, but I had friends that helped free me from them.” She thought, but didn’t say, “and from myself as well.” “I am eternally grateful to them.”

“That’s great!” Sweetie’s cheerfulness resumed. ”Do your friends use Song Magic?”

“Some of them do, but not all of them can. I’m sure you, for example, have many non-unicorn friends. But we’ve gone far off topic. Do you remember those notes I gave you before you came here?”

“Yeah, it was all a bunch of words to memorize. I got through most of the first twenty pages, thank you for listing them by how important they were.”

“That was a Hymmnos language. It’s used to channel feelings into power. The feelings travel to a source of power and initialize a reaction. The stronger and purer the feelings, the faster the reaction will occur. The reaction is the actual effect you want. When you sing song magic, your audience isn’t a set of listeners but yourself and your source of power.”

Sweetie prodded her chin with her hoof. “So, that’s why there are so many words that are only for announcing how you feel about something.”

Mir nodded. “In a normal song, you don’t just come out and say ‘I am sad about this’ or any of that, but Hymmnos is about making absolutely sure of your feelings. By the way, when I said ‘a Hymmnos language’ earlier there are more than one, but I gave you the standard one. For you the choice isn’t as important since your audience is you and your horn, but you don’t want to try to pronounce words like ‘wUwUjIncA’ do you?”

“Woo wuh wUH jinkACK Ih bih mah tongh!”

“Hold still for a moment.” Mir sang softly and the medicine fairy she’d used for Rarity appeared again to pour pink liquid onto Sweetie.

“Whoa! My tongue feels fine now.” Sweetie pulled on it with her magic to move it into her field of vision, then let go. “I thought I tasted blood but it’s fine now.”

“That’s the power of song magic. Now, because song magic requires you to have control of your feelings, it’s pretty difficult to learn new magics. Feelings aren’t entirely under our control, so you have to be very careful. There are three primary methods of acquiring a new song. The first would be to transfer them to you via your song server, but you don’t have one.”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“It’s part of me being, well, what I told you earlier. I’m afraid you can’t be attached to one. The second method would be for someone to go into your subconscious mind and help you gain deep understanding of your feelings about something. That’s usually a good way to get song magic, but your land doesn’t seem to have the necessary technical expertise to get there. The last method is…”

“Hang on. Dreams take place in the subconscious mind, right?”

“Uh, yes, they do.”

“We can totally get there! Princess Luna went into my dreams to help me deal with my issues with my sister.”

Mir’s head whipped around to Sweetie and her eyes widened. “Wait. You mean to tell me that a Princess personally went into your head to help you solve your emotional issues?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s part of her job. She seeks out ponies who have psy… psychological issues and helps them through their dreams.”

“Huh. Well, change of plans then. I was originally going to have you use method three: develop a spell suited to your current situation via provoking an overwhelming emotion. This however is much more reliable. Let’s go back home. Visiting someone’s subconscious is a big deal, so I need your mother to sign a permission slip.”

---

(1) The rocket-powered lance is from Croix’s ultimate attack in Ar Tonelico 2. You can see it here.
(2) The Ar Tonelico cosmology is kind of weird, since it’s sort of similar to the Big Bang but different in that there exists a “Will” in not only the big bang but each of the smaller-scale structures all the way down to planets. Exa Pico is sort of like God but lower-level Wills can deviate from its plan if they want to. So most of the time things work the way you’d expect, but then you get things like “the Will of the Planet dying causes gravity to end, flinging everyone into space.”

Comments

[Basic13]

I regret that I have only one like to give!

Seriously, I was just thinking of doing an Artonelico story, since the parallels between the two series are so spot on (song magic being a sort of equivalent to the elements of friendship and harmony) and Mir's relations to Luna and the Nightmare Moon are spot on.

Alas, you beat me to it, you magnificent author, you! But, I can still be the first to make to make them in their human forms!

This said, you have all my respect for this. Ar Tonelico is a very niche, very Japanese RPG, and it gets a lot of flak for its innuendo and fan service without focusing on the deeper history and elements of the story.

I will watch this with bated breath.

[JudgmentOfTheDream]

I love this crossover up to now, especially because MIR!

Though there is one little typo in this chapter. It's not Exo Pica, but Exa Pico.