Twilight Sparkle sits in the same booth that Lyra and Bon Bon recently occupied, though she does not realise it. The alicorn is well disguised, visibly lacking both her horn and wings, with a different palette to her coat and even a few subtle shifts to her cutie-mark. As such she is enjoying a hayburger in relative peace and quiet, though, even with the subtle disguise weaved around her ponies can sense she is not all that she seems. Colours seem brighter around the alicorn of friendship and magic, laughter comes easier and the food tastes sweeter. I am somewhat impressed by how strong her aura has grown in such a short space of time.
“Thanks again for agreeing to talk to me, Twilight.”
She swallows a bite of her burger and smiles. “No problem, Sandy. It’s lucky you caught me. I was going to travel later today, but Rainbow Dash insisted I look around the Exchange for some ‘mysterious interviewer pony’.” She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen anything like that?”
I glance down at my notepad, then up at Twilight’s warm, guileless smile. “No, I can’t say I have. So you have plans on Earth?”
“Well, damage control to perform at least,” she says, with a long suffering sigh. “Lyra is going on TV again, and that means somepony needs to be on call for when she causes another international incident.”
“This happens often?”
“Often enough,” Twilight mutters, and takes another bite of her burger. “I shouldn’t really blame her. Lyra has always been... impulsive, if I’m being diplomatic about it. She’s a pony that leaps before she looks and has been as long as I’ve known her. When she was a filly it was just harmless fun, but she’s a full grown mare now and one that’s constantly in the public spotlight. She needs to act more responsibly.”
I arch my eyebrow. “Some might say you’re still sore she beat you to revealing Equestria.”
Twilight shakes her head. “No, I’m not jealous. What she did was dangerous. In the end everything worked out, but what if it hadn’t? Lyra wilfully and knowingly endangered Equestria due to her own impatience. We had time. Humanity wasn’t aware of Equestria or the portal; for once we didn’t have a crisis to solve or a world ending threat to face.”
“And ponies such as Lyra would argue that you were happy to let that situation continue,” I point out.
“Earth was going to find out about us,” Twilight says, after another bite. “We knew we were on a clock. There were too many magical showdowns in too short a space of time for the governments of Earth to ignore us forever. It wasn’t an immediate threat, however, and we could learn so much in the meantime. There was an opportunity to understand humanity’s culture, their beliefs and their technology, but Lyra took that away from us and we had to go in blind.”
“Some would say that’s the best way to explore,” I point out.
“Well, they aren’t Princesses,” Twilight shoots back. “I have a responsibility to provide ponies with the best I can hope to achieve and Lyra undermined my efforts to smoothly introduce us to a world that, and let's be fair to humanity, does not have a great reputation for making friends with cultures they perceive as being primitive.”
“But you can argue that delaying was dangerous in its own way.” I set down my notepad. “The addition of a mobile network alone has revolutionised Equestria and, you could argue, saved hundreds of lives from various disasters. Surely that exchange of technology and ideas is a better use of the portal than a place to dump prisoners and malcontents?”
“Which is why we built more portals,” she says, shrugging.
“Heh. Yeah, I was surprised by that. I thought there would be a good chance you’d just take a hammer to it.”
Twilight frowns. “It was tempting. I couldn’t though. Partly, because leaving humanity with no way to get to Equestria would have just encouraged them to find their own. Mostly, though, I couldn’t destroy a work of art like that.”
“Art?” The shocked reply escapes me before I can stop it.
“Oh yes,” Twilight says, brightening. “I’ve spent a long time studying the original mirror and it is really fascinating. To be honest, even though the portals we have now are built to a different scale, they’re really pale copies of the original work. The original used just the solar cycle to power a bridge across worlds, a passive disguise spell, a language adaptation spell along with half a dozen little charms that made it almost impossible to notice. Sure, thirty moons charging time was a large price to pay, but even that was easily circumvented if one wanted to. In fact, I’d even say it was designed to be held open if somepony wanted to.”
I smile, leaning back in my chair. “Well, sounds like old Star Swirl has another notch for his beard.”
“Oh, it wasn’t Star Swirl,” Twilight says, causing me to choke in surprise. “As much as I admire his legacy, there’s a historical tendency to attribute everything to him. Crossing dimensions, however, is not part of any spell Star Swirl ever wrote. Sure, he knew about the mirror and even wrote extensively about his experiments with it, but it’s not his work.”
“So whose work is it?” I ask, trying and failing to keep my voice neutral.
“I don’t know. It feels... It feels like when Celestia raises the sun, or when Luna walks into a dream. It feels like somepony took the world and twisted it, making the impossible possible through sheer force of will.” Twilight smiles fondly. “Sunset showed me a human TV program called Stargate, where humanity finds an ancient gate to other worlds. The mirror is like that: ancient, alien, a fragment of a lost alicorn’s soul.” She lets out a pent up breath and a spark runs down the length of her, suddenly visible, horn.
I swallow the lump in my throat. “I wonder if that lost alicorn would appreciate all the people tramping through her portal.”
Twilight smiles. “I think she would. Nopony puts so much time and effort into something like that just to see it gather dust. She’d want to see how it works. She’d want to talk to the people using it and learn what they discovered on the other side of the mirror.”
She turns to look at me and for just a moment, our eyes meet through my veil of illusion magic. “Who are you, Sandy?” she asks, frowning.
I hold up my notebook. “Just somepony who collects stories, I’m writing a book, you see.”
“Yes, and I’m a librarian,” Twilight points out. Her horn begins to glow with magic and the pressure of her aura doubles in an instant. My veil wavers, but doesn’t fall. “That’s not exactly the whole story, is it?”
“You never get the whole story,” I point out, casting around for an exit. “You just get these little snippets of lives told through a haze of memory, nostalgia and lies. Fascinating in their own way, but never fully true.”
Her frown deepens, forming a furrow between her brows. The pressure of magic redoubles and ponies start to look our way. They can’t see the struggle of wills, but they can feel it, in the same way a pegasus can feel a wild storm building.
“Who are you?” she repeats, planting her hooves firmly on the table.
“Sandy Hooves.” I hold out my hoof to shake, she doesn’t take it. “It’s a pleasure–”
I slam my hoof down, catching the edge of the metal tray. Through more luck than judgement, it flips into the air smacking Twilight right in the face. The moment of distraction is just enough for me to vault out of the booth and break into a wild gallop towards the back of the restaurant.
“Wait!” Twilight cries, as I barge through a door and into a restroom. “I just want to... huh?”
She finds herself staring at an empty room. The restroom is deserted, save for a few unoccupied stalls and a broad mirror.
Learn all about them and secretly exploit their technology, to "provide ponies with the best" and ponies only? Yet again, some princess of friendship.
6846389
I have no idea where you got that from her speach.
It sounds like she wanted time to make sure the water was safe to jump into. Lyra just pushed everyone off the cliff without a single care for if there were rocks under the water, and got lucky that everything didn't go tits up and get hundreds killed.
The plot thickens!
6846389
She is a Princess. Her primary duty is to provide her subjects.
But I suspect the subject was brought out during the trial, and Twi still feels defensive about it.
Also, Sandy Hooves = Santa Claus?
I wonder how Twilight will take the fact that she just lost an opportunity to make a friend due to her actions. It's doubtful Sandy will ever approach her willingly again, because Twilight has shown herself to willingly throw her weight around rather than act with dignity and respect, if she doesn't have enough information. A very controlling personality that believes her station puts her above common courtesy...
That is a huge character flaw for a ruler, especially if you offend someone with the power to match you (like Sandy showed she was capable of).
6846404
It seems underhanded and surprisingly unabashedly self-interested. Most important, though, is the part about finding out about human technology in the plain intent of not revealing her "learning efforts" and without meaning to give anything back in return except at her own discretion. One could take that as espionage.
6846410
She's the princess of friendship. Befriending others for their sake, not for her own, is exactly what she is supposed to do. Using others for your own benefit is pretty much the exact opposite of friendship.
Well well... I was going to suspect that Twilight knew Sandy, or at least had a theory, but someone that can match her, power for power? That either makes them very strong... or very old. Leaning towards the latter, considering the earlier chapters, but Star Swirl has been discounted.
Curiouser and curiouser...
6846424
Again, I have no idea where you've gotten any of that from Twilight's speech. You seem to be demonizing her for doing her job.
Celestia/Luna/Twilight/Cadence would be terrible, TERRIBLE rulers if they didn't worry about all the variables involved in interdimensional diplomacy, that includes the main three things about a civilization. Their technology, their culture, and their religion if any. Trying to make contact with an alien race that has a history literally filled, year in year out, with constant warfare somewhere on the planet, you need to damn well make 100% sure that you're not revealing yourself to something that's going to flip on you with a doomsday device because their religion said so. Not to mention there are literally hundreds of separate cultures and various religions with sub-religions, all with their own history, to take into consideration.
Nowhere does she even suggest taking, she rather said "Understand". Everything she said is about understanding humanity to make a plan for revealing themselves. Getting into the pond with as little ripples as possible, rather than jump in and create a tsunami.
If this is where you're getting it from, she's replying directly to the idea that "The best way to explore is to just jump in", in which point she fires back that she, as a ruler, has to be more responsible than that. To avoid YOLO moments that can get her civilians hurt or killed, and leave a mess that she will have to clean up.
To avoid EXACTLY what happened when Lyra screwed it all up. She jumped the gun before the Princesses could make a solid plan for introducing themselves, and got people hurt. To the point that she is causing international incidents that one of the Princesses is having to personally intervene in to smooth things over, and they're in disguise to hide from people that are out for her blood.
We don't know the exact fallout to occur, but it's bad enough for a lot of people to demand the highest possible punishment.
6846424
I think you and I are on the same page here. I really dislike this Twilight portrayal even from this short chapter, because it shows behavior that is antithetical to her aspect. That being a 'Princess' is more important than being a good friend, which was the reason she supposedly ascended in the first place.
6846424 So you're saying it's her *job* to carry the idiot ball?
I think Celestia already took that job.
6846467 I best Sandy is the creator of the mirror that came back after the portals where put in use to observe how it affects the two worlds it connected.
6846493
You know, I very much got the impression that the ponies that are 'suffering' from contact between worlds were suffering from economic issues. Mailmares let go because ponies are using cell phones and e-mails instead of sending letters. Professional calculators replaced by electronic ones. Weren't some of the trains being pulled by Earth ponies? Sorry, we're switching all of those over to diesel / electric. Better find a new job.
I'd call all of those things positive improvements... But as with any new technology or advancement, there are those who are going to be displaced by it. And they are not going to be happy. I can certainly see people thusly effected grumbling about Lyra, and wanting to see her punished.
Double so for the self entitled nobility. It could well be a double whammy. The businesses and assets they own and 'manage' that support their affluent lifestyle are suddenly being devalued. And on top of that, they're being exposed to an entire world of different concept, ideal, and politics. One that may not mesh well with, or even appreciate, nobility. Somehow I expect the likes of Blueblood and others would not appreciate having the common rabble exposed to the concept of democracy...
So yeah, I can totally see where ponies might be calling for Lyra to be stoned, even if contact is clearly doing more good than harm.
6846495
6846424
To act as devil's advocate, Twilight is being interviwed and on the look-out for a mysterius, suspected trouble-maker that just pranced past royal security like it was a chalk-line in the sand
I'd argue that's a time if any to put on a bit of the offical airs, even before noticing that there's something really fishy going on.
6846876
On the contrary, the PC thing to do if she was putting on a bit of the official airs, as Rainbow Dash explained in her own section, would be to promote unity and friendship between species, not suggest that Equestria should have refrained from contacting Earth until the last possible moment, which only depended on the risk of being exposed. If there were no risk of being exposed, I wonder, would Twilight have opened up official first contact at all? That way there'd be no risk to Equestria, while they steal all the technology of Earth in the process, to gain all the (obvious) benefits without the risk. Who cares about humans, after all?
6846424 6846495 In my own defence, I think you're taking Twilights hesitation to mean that she didn't want to make contact, and that's not something I meant to imply at all. She looked before she leapt, trying to find out as much as possible about the culture she had to introduce Equestria to before she caused a faux par or international incident with lethal consequences. In many ways this is the complete opposite of what happened with the yaks (and to some extent the buffalo), where leaping almost caused a war that could have easily been avoided if everyone had taken a moment to figure each other out beforehand.
6846493
I actually got what Wlam said from that same passage. Specifically, these two lines:
I'm getting the sense that Twilight was more than willing to open the portal once ponies (and hopefully by extension the rest of their species) had technologically caught up to humanity. I'm fairly certain that's not what she meant but that's actually what I'm taking away from this conversation.
All in all, I think Twilight being the 'too nervous to jump' type and Lyra being the 'jump before you look' type play off each other well. And honestly, I'd like to smack Twitwi in the horn - humanity would not appreciate being studied and mentally dissected before first contact and would probably react in a more positive manner to a kind of halting, stuttering and error-filled contact than a perfect and perfectly planned scenario. So in that, I think Lyra did more to help than hinder the events.
I'm thinking Sombra made the mirror. [/WMG]
Unfortunately, she's not wrong.
My gut says Sandy is Celestia, but I also think Luna or Chrysalis could be possible.
6847023
If that's the comparison that she meant to make she should have said it in the text, because like
6847078 said,that's not how it read, and frankly, I agree with the conclusion that Twilight would want technological parity.
That also would never happen, because humanity advances faster than ponies do, by far.
I also agree that humanity would not look kindly on delaying to steal as much technology as possible, and would much prefer a error prone first contact than a highly studied one that only ended do to finally passing some sort of arbitrary moral threshold, or until Twilight feels any advantage humans have from their technology is negated. Humanity likes being in control of its own destiny, or at least no one in control, and not the designs of another race, and most definitely not the designs of powerful individuals.
She could be forgiven for making that mistake before, but she had had 20 years now. She really should know better than to compare humanity to Yaks and Buffalo. She still thinks her plan was good, and that shows a research failure, extreme arrogance, and frankly looks down on humanity.
To put it another way, if she still feels like it after 20 years, I question if she would have opened the portal yet, if ever. It does not read like the Princess of Friendship.
6847023
6847078
6846774
6847415
Well, I suppose the authorial statement clears that up. Personally, though, I'm still with Cyan, Minalkra and Canary over that. Not because I'd have the nerve to say that you're wrong about your story - you'd certainly know what you intended, if anyone does - but because the entire situation was... sketchy. I think this can honestly follow quite naturally from what we see in the text and it's the more interesting reading of it. This whole story has been very grey so far. We've seen statements from both sides, both worlds and more than one race in regards to the situation that were both favourable and less enthused about it.
Lyra's account of her own actions was clearly rather biased and one-sided in her own favour. It only makes sense enough to give reading Twilight's the same doubtful courtesy, doesn't it? Where Lyra jumped into things over her gut-feeling on fairness and may have caused unintentional harm, Twilight was overthinking things out of (understandable, but also rather selfish) caution, a desire to advance Equestria at no cost to itself and, if not prevented, would probably have done her own damage in the long run, possibly worse so.
It never came to pass, after all, so who's to say? Lyra ended up being the one who took the fall. Just a few things done different, though, and it could have been Twilight instead, messing up in her own way.
6846505
Giving former enemies a second chance that they could use to betray you again is, no doubt, idiotic in its own way. Yet, still, it's what they've always consistently done, where it was possible, all for the sake of fostering friendship. To not give humanity the same benefit of the doubt seems uncharacteristic, doesn't it?
6847649
While I thematically agree, Twilight and Lyra are not equal in political power, so I can't just treat it as a matter of opinion. Twilight's opinion matters a whole lot more, for better or worse.
Hearing the leader of another nation say these things would be quite worrying versus a random civilian.
Not to mention Twilight isn't the one forced to abandon her identity and be constantly in hiding.
6847674
That much is certainly also true. Of course, we don't quite know how much Lyra is really in hiding. It might just be the pony celebrity equivalent a headscarf and a big pair of glasses. Still, fair point - Twilight's position makes anything she says and does resound that much more strongly across both worlds, as she admitted herself. Every statement of intent for herself is, in a distinct way, also a statement about Equestria's goverment policies.
6846495 I don't know about you, but I feel the issue is less the choice she made and the action she took rather then the why and the attitude she have toward it.
I could see her getting demanding with Sandy, but either out of fear or more likely overexited curiosity.
I can see her prefering to open the relation with humanity on her own term, but I woud've expected her to wan't thing to be done by the book. Figuratively and literaly speaking in her case.
6847717
There is no "by the book" in these kind of scenarios. What could be a good idea in one case could be an extremely bad idea in another (see: Yaks).
The only reasonable thing that could be expected is to put out feelers to gauge the other government's reaction, and contact them privately to discuss it. That itself carries a risk, but staying hidden could be a lot worse, and the only way to know for sure... is to ask. Otherwise, it could be interpreted as espionage.
6847767
Given the sheer amount of intelligent species in ponyland, I would honestly not be surprised if there actually was a "Dummies' Guide to First Contact" book or two floating around there. Doesn't mean anything you'd find in it would necessarily actually be a good idea, of course.
6847767 I am sure there is book on how the first contact beetween Equestria and other country happend.
And regardless of the presence or not of book on diplomacy and exploration, sending Pony that are specialized in both would've made far more sense then just random Pony with an obsession on conspiracy theory going straigth to the other world ruler...
6847790
No one disputes what Lyra did was dangerous and short-sighted. However, what Twilight was planning would have been a lot worse, and as Sandy pointed out, Equestria benefited from it.
Also keep in mind Twilight was arrested. I doubt it was for just showing up, implying that she may have tried to free Lyra without starting up first contact.
One of the leaders of Equestria had to be in chains before they officially started first contact.
6847823
I do keep this in mind, hence why I think that she wasn't adequately portrayed
6846415
To me that character flaw is canon. Even before she became a princess, Twilight's been one to throw her weight around to get what she feels is important. And because the show writers are... spotty, she's never really confronted about it. (Especially since she's a princess now.)
Ancient lost Alicorn huh?
Interesting.
Ain't that the truth!
oHohh whatt?! oh now thats a inchresting turn of events!
Faust: hehehehe
6851652
Faust: they don't even know!