Pinkie Pie often said that she wasn’t very good at using her own imagination, but statements like those were somewhat misleading. The earth pony was hardly unimaginative; she simply used her imagination in a way that was radically different from most ponies. Where a pony like Twilight Sparkle would use her imagination to formulate ideas and test them in thought experiments, Pinkie Pie never bothered with in-depth speculation. Instead, as soon as an idea was somewhat distinct, she would unleash it onto the “real” world. This often resulted in a lot of apparent non sequiturs, but it also meant that she could be extremely insightful when her connections were valid, which happened more often than not. It also made her mind a very... interesting place.
This was a world where hazy, half-formed ideas drifted through washes of color, like a marriage between impressionism and abstract expressionism, with occasional accusations of a one-night stand with surrealism. Vaguely pony-shaped pastel blotches could be seen moving through foggy landscapes, and odd ideas seemed to float through the air, just waiting to be snatched and applied to any given situation, regardless of their appropriateness. Similarly, almost nothing had a clearly defined location—though there was one prominent exception.
This was the section of Pinkie’s mind that had been set aside to house Penumbra Noctis when she wasn’t physically present in Equestria. Penumbra had designed her home in the style of Fallingwater, the most renowned architect of the modern era. It was precise and geometric, with several long, rectangular overhangs over porches and balconies, all made of brick and concrete in various earth tones that matched the neatly trimmed lawn.
Inside, the former Nightmare sat in a large armchair, still grousing about Twilight Sparkle’s inexplicable kowtowing to her insufferable braggart of a rival. Why had she simply allowed Trixie to win that magic duel? She hadn’t even come close to using all of the resources available to her, and yet she’d given up, knowing that this meant that she’d be forced into exile—but she wasn’t really being forced to do anything. After all, magic duels no longer had any legal standing these days, and Penumbra was fairly certain that Twilight could overcome the magical force field that had been put in place to keep her out.
Surprisingly, though, Pinkie Pie had yet to pull her back into the outside world. This was most unexpected, since it had been roughly three days since Twilight’s exile, assuming that Pinkie’s internal clock was functioning normally. If the drab colors and muted sounds outside of Penumbra’s abstract stained glass windows were any indication, the situation had yet to improve. A light patter against the glass eventually got her attention; it rarely rained in Pinkie’s mind, and when it did, it usually meant that her mood had taken a turn for the melancholy. A few minutes later, this was all but confirmed as the drizzle transformed into a torrential downpour. The pegasus couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen—yet she still managed to be startled by the sudden pounding against her door.
Penumbra rose from her seat and opened the door, and, as she expected, there was Pinkie Pie, wearing a raincoat and smiling, though not as widely as she usually did. “Can I come in?”
“Of course.” Penumbra wasn’t surprised that Pinkie Pie’s muzzle had returned. After all, this was her mind, and she made the rules. “Would you like something to eat?” Granted, food in here didn’t exactly provide nourishment, but that was hardly any reason to be boorish.
“You have no idea!” Pinkie Pie said. “I’ll take anything you have that’s solid enough to chew, please.”
This was a rather odd request, but by now, Penumbra was used to her warden/landlady making odd requests during her visits. Five minutes later, the two of them were munching on dandelion salads in a raspberry vinaigrette, though Pinkie Pie seemed to be savoring the motion of her jawbone more than the actual flavors. Eventually, the pegasus grew impatient waiting for her guest to begin the conversation, so she decided to launch into the most obvious topic herself. “So, why haven’t you tried to get in touch with me?”
Pinkie Pie, to her credit, remembered to swallow before answering. “I’ve been kind of busy. Trixie’s taken over Ponyville, and she’s basically gone all ‘Mwa ha ha’ on everypony.”
“Please, I’ve heard that amateur’s attempt at gloating laughter. It wouldn’t intimidate a cocker spaniel.”
“It does when you back it up with magic spells. She’s... getting really bad.”
“I guessed as much from the scenery outside my window,” Penumbra replied, “but that does not exactly answer my question.”
“It’s just that she’s made things a lot more complicated, and that’s kept me from pulling you back outside. For one thing, I haven’t been able to talk in the real world since Trixie made my muzzle disappear.”
“Why would that stop you?” the pegasus asked. “You’re a shapeshifter.”
Pinkie Pie nodded. “Well, yeah. The problem isn’t that I can’t make my muzzle reappear, it’s that I can’t get my mouth open to say anything. I’m pretty sure that when Trixie told me to ‘shut up,’ that was part of the spell as well. I mean, I can slide a straw between my lips, so I’ve been surviving on milkshakes and fruit smoothies, but other than that, my lips are sealed. So, I figured it was best to go with the muzzle-free look most of the time, since I don’t want her to start asking questions about how an earth pony managed to overcome really powerful unicorn magic.”
“Well, that makes as much sense as anything else, I suppose. However, I doubt that you actually need to say ‘Abracapinkie’ to make me appear.”
The earth pony chuckled sheepishly. “Well, I also thought you might need some time alone, too. If I’d have brought you out against your will, I probably would have just made you angrier. Besides, I’m not sure Trixie would react very well to your cutie mark.”
Penumbra seemed a bit stunned by this assertion, and turned her head to make sure that the insignia on her hip hadn’t changed. It was still a silver circle. Confused, she turned back to Pinkie Pie. “I don’t understand... why would anypony have a problem with my cutie mark?”
The earth pony wrinkled her eyebrows. “It’s a circle,” she replied.
After a second or two of silence, Penumbra realized that her friend assumed that this was an adequate explanation. “Pinkie, could you elaborate a bit?”
“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie Pie replied. “You know how to calculate the circumference of a circle, right?”
“Of course. Multiply the diameter by π.”
“Right, but how do you calculate π?”
“It’s defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, so you just divide the former by the latter.”
“Okay, so how do you calculate the circumference of a circle?”
“You just asked me that.”
“I know, but in order to calculate the circumference of a circle, first we need to know what its circumference is so we can calculate π so we can calculate the circumference so we can calculate π so we can calculate the circumference so we can calculate π so we can calculate the circumference—”
“So use an approximation!”
“You’re missing the point.”
“There’s actually a point to this nonsense?”
Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically. “Uh-huh. Trixie believes that if something exists, it should, in theory at least, be measurable, even if it requires using rulers with teeny-tiny markings. All circles have circumferences, and circumferences can’t be measured, because nopony really knows what π is. Therefore, circles don’t exist, and anything that is held to be a circle is actually a deceitful, overambitious polygon. Therefore, circles, and anything shaped like one, can’t be trusted, so she’s outlawed them in Ponyville. Let me tell you, pulling a cart without wheels isn’t easy.”
Penumbra face was distorted by a mixture of outrage and befuddlement. “I’ve heard of irrational hatred, but this is ridiculous!”
“Actually, it’s more like transcendental hatred: she’s also outlawed compound interest, but she doesn’t seem to have a problem with square roots or golden rectangles. Well, not yet anyway.”
“So, she opposes π and e on the grounds that they shouldn’t exist for... philosophical reasons?”
Pinkie nodded. “Yeah. If it ever occurs to her that shades of magenta are actually optical illusions, I might be in trouble.”
Penumbra leaned back in her chair and ran a hoof through her mane. “Alright, so Trixie is becoming rather unstable. That doesn’t quite explain why you waited until now to talk to me in here.”
“Um, well, I was kind of hoping things would get better on their own. Either Twilight would come back, or you’d return on your own, or our friends would figure out what was really happening. But we’ve pored over every book in the library, and we haven’t found anything. And... and I think my mane is starting to de-poof, and I really want to avoid that.”
“About that... you do know what’s actually going on, right?” Penumbra asked hesitantly.
“Well, sure. For whatever reason, Twilight doesn’t want to use the extra unicorn magic she got when we split you up. I think that maybe she thought that would be cheating, since Trixie only wanted to test herself against Twilight.”
“Unlikely,” Penumbra responded. “Did you notice the necklace Trixie was wearing?”
“Yeah... Rarity says it’s one of the gaudiest pieces of jewelry she’s ever seen.”
“One does not wear jewelry of that kind for beautification—especially not the Alicorn Amulet. It has the ability to increase a unicorn’s magical power by a rather sizable amount. Though it seems that the rumors that it inevitably corrupts the user might be true after all....” Penumbra’s voice trailed off in thought.
Pinkie Pie, however, perked up immediately. “Really? We need to tell Twilight.”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. She knows about it already.”
Pinkie looked confused. “How can you be sure?”
“Because I spent several weeks trying to convince her to locate it for when we seized the throne. Thus, she already knew that her opponent had attempted to stack the deck in her favor.”
The kitchen went quiet once again.
Eventually, Pinkie Pie broke the silence. “You need to talk to Twilight.”
“Hmph,” Penumbra snorted. “Let her come to me.”
“If she was going to do that on her own, she would have found a way to get in touch with us. C’mon, Penny, you’re the only one who can do it. I can’t talk to her with my gag order, and I can’t use charades or writing to tell the others about the whole by-the-way-we’re-alicorns thing because I Pinkie Promised not to.”
The pegasus sighed. “You’d think she would have extended the exceptions beyond the Princesses by now. Also, don’t call me ‘Penny.’”
“Sorry. Besides, even if I could tell them what’s going on, that doesn’t mean that they could help out. The two of us are the only ones who know enough about magical theory to actually talk to her about it, and, like I said, I can’t talk at the moment. Plus, if you do it, then we don’t need a complicated escape plan.”
“How so?”
“You know how Trixie’s force field basically looked like an upside-down fishbowl?”
“Yes...”
“Well, it turns out that it basically is an upside-down fishbowl, only made of magic instead of glass. It doesn’t actually extend into the ground. Well, that, and it’s more like a fish tank now, since Trixie decided that the original shape was too spherical to be trusted.”
“But couldn’t somepony just tunnel underneath to get out?”
Pinkie nodded. “Our best guess is that Trixie’s too busy going mad with power to notice details like that. However, she’d probably wise up eventually if it took too long, which is where you come in. Since you can pass through solid objects with your inscape-outscape trick, that means you can just mist your way through the ground and out onto the other side. Then you can find Twilight and figure out what’s wrong and bring her back and everything will be fixed and everypony will be happy and I’ll throw a party once my mouth is fixed and it’ll be great and don’t you want to do it now?”
However, Penumbra still balked at the idea. “I don’t know, Pinkie Pie. You know how Twilight can get sometimes. What if she’s still intransigent?”
“Um, well, when somepony’s friend is being, you know, really stubborn, sometimes the best thing that friend can do is to be, um, forceful.”
“Pinkie Pie... are you giving me permission to use the Royal Canterlot Voice?”
“Only if it’s absolutely, positively necessary,” the earth pony replied before hastily adding, “and believe me, I’ll be able to find out if it wasn’t.”
Penumbra grinned slyly. “That sounds reasonable.”
——————————
Deep in the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle was walking on water. Well, technically, she was standing on it, but most ponies wouldn’t have made that particular distinction. Watching her from solid ground was the forest’s premier apothecary and potion-maker, though admittedly she didn’t have very much competition.
“Efficiency will win the fight, no well of power can last all night. Let her magic froth and rage, then she will soon fall into your cage.”
Twilight would have responded to Zecora’s maxim, but she was rather busy trying to move a dozen or so bubbles around in a complicated fractal pattern while maintaining enough surface tension in the pond beneath her hooves to keep from falling in. She had just begun the process of subdividing the bubble to move on to the fractal’s next iteration when she noticed that her aura was gaining a purple tint again.
Splash!
Twilight brushed her wet mane out of her eyes and saw the zebra staring at her with a thoughtful look on her face. “Um, sorry, Zecora,” the unicorn said as she climbed out of the water. “Give me a few minutes to dry out, and I’ll try again. Okay?”
Zecora, however, cast a suspicious glance on her friend. “I am rather confused, my dear Twilight. Is there no more to tell me of your plight?”
“O-Of course there isn’t. I mean, I need to beat Trixie, right? Why wouldn’t I tell you everything?”
“Because if you did, Zecora might give you the same advice I would.”
Startled, Twilight jumped into the air and landed back in the pond. When she surfaced again, she turned towards the source of the voice. “Penumbra?! How did you get out of Ponyville?”
“That answer,” the pegasus said as she stepped into the clearing, her face as grumpy as ever, “is rather complicated, but it was made possible because Trixie’s amulet appears to be corrupting her mind.”
Zecora raised an eyebrow as she noted Penumbra’s glare; it looked like the pegasus was using all of her willpower to keep from tearing into her friend. “We should, perhaps, return to my tree; it’s unwise to argue in the Everfree.”
——————————
Fifteen minutes later, Penumbra was sipping some manner of infusion from a gourd as she and Zecora waited for Twilight to finish drying off (and stalling for time). “...and that’s how I got into the cloudsmithing business. So, Twilight really hadn’t told you about the Alicorn Amulet?”
“Her agitation is plain to see, but she never shared this tidbit with me.”
Penumbra chuckled softly. “I’m not really all that surprised. What she’s been hiding is the obvious solution to her problem, which, for some unfathomable reason, she does not want to use.”
“The point you are making is not very clear. I can’t understand what I do not hear.”
“Wow... a zebra’s lecturing me about being cryptic. And I didn’t even have to force it into an arbitrary rhyme. Why do you speak like that, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Apparently, Zecora didn’t mind at all, because she immediately answered, “If forced to express one’s thoughts in rhyme, one learns to compose them ahead of time. As structured minds are what we seek, our foals, in rhyme are taught to speak. And if this rhyming leaves you weary, know that it gets much more dreary; with formal speech, one must pursue more complex rhymes, and meter, too.”
“Fascinating...” Penumbra replied. “But isn’t it a bit difficult?”
“I shall admit it’s more easily done when speaking in the Zebrabwe tongue. It’s somewhat difficult to talk about oranges when I can not work in a reference to door hinges.”
“Indeed?” The pegasus had never heard any of this before. Zebrabwe hadn’t been a prominent country one thousand years earlier, and she hadn’t really had a chance to get caught up on such matters since her return.
The zebra turned the discussion back to more immediate concerns. “I offer my apologies; continue with your story, please.”
“I would, but... are you familiar with Pinkie Promises?”
Zecora nodded comprehendingly. “That is an oath most grave, it’s true. I’ll wait for Twilight to continue. However, she is taking quite a while, drying off like it will go out of style.”
A loud groan emitted from behind the shaman’s bathroom door. “Alright! I’m coming!” The door opened and Twilight Sparkle sullenly walked in and sat down.
“Have you finished your evading? For your solution, we are waiting.”
Twilight began fidgeting nervously. “Um, well, you see...” She stared at a large mask on the wall, apparently trying to come up with an explanation. Five seconds later, she had one. “The Alicorn Amulet is enchanted so that only the wearer can remove it. The obvious solution is to trick Trixie into taking it off, but I wanted to try and beat her with magic.” The unicorn did her best to avoid eye contact with Penumbra, whose face was beginning to contort with rage.
Zecora, however, couldn’t help but notice this. “One need not be a sage to see that Penumbra vehemently disagrees.”
Twilight Sparkle appeared to be sweating a little as she answered the zebra: “Er, well, I can’t think of what it might be. So, I guess all that’s left to discuss is whether I should continue training with you or think of something sneaky, right?”
Penumbra’s nostrils flared as she took several deep breaths. “Very well,” she said after calming herself down. “I shall be happy to lend my expertise. After all, who better than the Nightmare to advise you on trickery and subterfuge?”
Twilight looked shocked. “Penumbra! You... you promised—”
“The promise I made had absolutely nothing to do with my past misdeeds, Twilight. I’ve just avoided telling ponies about it to keep misunderstandings at bay.”
Zecora was stunned. “You are the being called Nightmare Moon, the one who corrupted Princess Luna?”
Penumbra sighed. “Yes, and I can’t believe you just rhymed ‘Luna’ with ‘moon, the.’”
“But this is unclear. How can you be here?”
The pegasus smiled. “I received a pardon after I Pinkie Promised to be good.”
“But that means you were not a pegasus born, so what has become of your magical horn?”
“You know, I’d love to answer that question, Zecora, but somepony would have to authorize it first.” By the end of this statement, Penumbra was scowling directly at Twilight Sparkle.
The purple unicorn winced, and bit her lip, but the scrutiny she received from her friend didn’t end. When Zecora joined in, Twilight finally relented. “Pinkie Pie and I divided her magic up so she wouldn’t be too powerful. She kept her pegasus magic, Pinkie has her earth pony magic... and I have her unicorn magic.”
Zecora’s jaw hung open for several seconds before she was able to formulate a reply. “The magic of an alicorn?! You shouldn’t need my help training your horn. There can’t be many who could match you, perhaps at the most only one or two.”
“Actually,” Penumbra interjected, “my power was equal to Princess Celestia’s. Thus, when combined with the considerable ability Twilight already had, it’s safe to say that she is easily the most powerful unicorn in recorded history, if not all time.”
“And all of this time I thought you’d grown weary,” the shaman said as her eyes widened with realization. “In truth, you were of your own power leery!”
Twilight stared at her hooves and silently nodded.
“Which brings us to the 64,000-bit question,” Penumbra declared. “Why?”
The librarian sighed. “I can feel the difference between your magic and mine. Mine’s pure unicorn magic, but because you were—and technically still are—an alicorn, your unicorn magic has traces of pegasus and earth pony in it. I’ve been trying to avoid tapping into that power, which is why I’ve been stopping whenever my aura starts changing its color.”
“Interesting,” Penumbra said. “But you haven’t answered my question.”
Twilight Sparkle refused to make eye contact with either of her friends as she answered, “I know that I’m technically an alicorn right now, but as long as I don’t use your unicorn magic, the traces of pegasus and earth pony magic won’t mix with mine. And... and that would mean there’s a chance I can go back to being a regular unicorn someday.”
This came as a surprise to Zecora. “But the use of magic is your forté. Why would you throw such a gift away? Is it, perhaps, because you fear that your friends will not stay dear?”
“No,” Twilight replied. “They’re my friends. I know they’ll support me no matter what happens. I mean, that’s what being a friend is about.”
“Then, a different concern regarding your friends: Do you not wish to tarry after their lives end?”
“Oh, please, not the depressed immortal bit,” Penumbra said derisively. “If other ponies can deal with the death of loved ones, why would it be any different for those that live a long time? And even if it does get too hard to bear, that’s not a problem. Luna’s father explained it to her quite clearly: ‘All ponies must depart from this world eventually, but alicorns do not leave until they are ready to go.’ You’ll see your friends again. It just might take a little longer than you expected, that’s all.”
Twilight looked confused. “Wait... if alicorns can’t die without their consent, why did you think you could kill Princess Celestia?”
“Killing the body and destroying the mind are two very different things,” Penumbra replied, “and you’re trying to change the subject again.”
The unicorn let out another long breath. “Actually, I’m not concerned at all about being functionally immortal. I asked Cadance about it when I was still a filly, and she explained everything to me. She even used that same quote about not leaving until you’re ready.”
It seemed that it was now the pegasus’ turn to venture a guess. “Are you worried that all this power will corrupt you? Because as your previous tempter, I can vouch that your ethical resolve is extremely difficult to circumvent. In fact, I don’t think I entirely succeeded, given that you managed to find a way to attempt a power grab in such a lawful, orderly fashion that the Princesses didn’t feel any need to pardon you.”
“Celestia certainly thinks I can handle it. After Pinkie Pie mentioned the alicorn thing in a friendship report, she told me that she thought I would be a great Princess.” Twilight looked up and saw a pair of disbelieving stares in reply. “Yeah,” she continued with a weak grin, “it turns out that she’s been grooming me to be her successor this whole time, which means that I’d have eventually gotten everything Nightmare was tempting me with if I’d ignored her.”
“Twilight, how many times must I tell you not to refer to my past identity in the third person when I’m present?” Penumbra asked with a wry grin.
The smile threw Twilight off. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine. I just find the irony of the situation to be amusing; that’s all.”
Twilight decided to brush this off and continued: “Apparently, whenever a pony, usually a unicorn, reaches a level of enlightenment necessary to create new magic, they can become an alicorn and join the line of succession to the Equestrian throne if they choose. In fact, Princess Celestia said that she had originally planned to have me complete an unfinished spell by Star Swirl the Bearded. But when Pinkie and I created a new spell to split up your power, we essentially fulfilled the criteria necessary for royal titles, in addition to discovering a previously unknown path to ascension.”
Zecora chose this moment to re-enter the conversation. “This discussion is all very interesting, but you still have not told us why you reject this thing.”
Twilight grew extremely quiet. She stared at the textures of Zecora’s dirt floor for almost half a minute before looking back up at her friends. “I don’t want to be an alicorn because I... I don’t deserve it.”
This was met with several more seconds of silence before Penumbra spoke up. “Would you mind running that by me again?”
“I don’t deserve to be an alicorn,” the unicorn repeated.
Zecora thoughtfully raised a hoof to her chin. “This reasoning does not leave my curiosity sated. Could you explain further how it was formulated?”
The purple unicorn looked particularly ashamed of herself as she answered, “Before Pinkie Pie stopped me, I... I tried to murder Penumbra.”
With the metaphorical 800-pound gorilla finally revealed, Penumbra let out a puff of breath that briefly blew her mane away from her right eye. “So that’s it? You think the fact that you beat me to a pulp and were fully prepared to kill me disqualifies you?”
Twilight nodded slowly.
“Twilight Sparkle, I understand that your personal experiences have occasionally given you a rather unique outlook on life, but that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! AND I LIVE IN PINKIE PIE’S HEAD! Leaving aside the question of whether or not I deserved to die—and despite what Pinkie said at the time, I think there’s a very strong case to be made that I did—I’m the Nightmare! Are you seriously going to sit there and tell me that I’m somehow more deserving of my alicorn status than you? As you so eloquently put it, I was trying to murder your best friend and I tricked you into helping me! Yet here I am, an alicorn all the same, and unlike you, I don’t have the option of being a ‘normal pony’ because I’ve never had any ‘pure’ pegasus magic.”
“But... but I was still wrong....”
Penumbra squinted at Twilight as she considered her response. When she came up with it, she had to fight the urge to jump into the air in celebration of her own cleverness. “I forgive you.”
“What?”
“I forgive you for wanting to kill me and trying to follow through with it. Were I in your place, I would have done much worse. As far as I’m concerned, it’s as if your brief lapse in judgment never happened.”
“You don’t have to pretend—”
“I’m not pretending. I didn’t even know that you felt guilty about it until a few minutes ago. You can keep feeling haunted by your actions if you want, but I say that’s hardly a reason to keep that intellect of yours confined to a single lifetime and deprive Equestria of all the advances it could discover, to say nothing of how your administrative abilities could streamline the government bureaucracies. And besides, Pinkie and I would miss you.”
“Pinkie’s already made her decision?”
“Of course. She’s already Pinkie Promised to stick around until I’m ready to leave, to make sure that I’ll always have a friend. Now, are you going to join us, or will you keep playing Little Miss Emotional Wreck?”
“Well... when you put it that way... I guess...” Twilight finally looked Penumbra directly in the eye, and she was smiling. “I guess there’s no reason not to. After all, if it doesn’t work out, I can just get ready to leave earlier, right?”
The dark blue pegasus returned her friend’s smile. “Right.”
Suddenly, Zecora cleared her throat. “It is good that you two have resolved your issues—and fortunate, as I am out of tissues.” Indeed, it appeared that the zebra had resorted to using a pile of dish towels to daub her eyes. “Yet the issue at hoof is still unresolved, so to deal with Trixie, a plan I’ve evolved....”
for the effect. this should have come out yesterday
2271457 - No, it shouldn't have.
When one lives in Pinkie Pie's head, and calls something utterly ridiculous, you know there's something wrong.
A great chappie, and I look forward to more!
Forget about Pi, embrace the glory of Tau. The full circle damn it!
2271465
i stand corrected...
3.2?
That's your only reason, Twi?
*Makes strangling motions.*
Figures that was why Twilight didn't use her full power. I just can't wait to see everyponies reaction (especially Trixie's) to how much power Twilight actually does have. I don't think slight of hand will be used this time.
YES, finally an explanation that makes sense for Trixie's hatred of wheels!
Aww, no sneaky-suit!Fluttershy in this 'verse?
Also, that's a great explanation for the zebra rhyming.
Princess Pinkie Pie? YES.
That is the best reason for Trixie's hatred of wheels I've ever seen.
>transcendental hatred
You win forever.
>nopony really knows what π is
but what about π/4=1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9... given by the series for arctangent?
2271768
>That is the best reason for Trixie's hatred of wheels I've ever seen.
Kwakerjak is an expert in explaining the unexplainable. After all, he explained rock farming and Pinkie Pie.
Interesting reason for Twilight's reluctance. My inital guess was that she might have been planning to return the power to Penumbra one day, as it wasn't hers to begin with (assuming Penumbra proved herself to be reformed). Mixing the magic would render than impossible and explain the reluctance to do it casually.
But the guilt makes sense. I mean, attempted murder aside (which is a big thing to set aside), from her perspective, tried to exercise a coup and ended up rewarded for it. That must have felt weird.
That was quite possibly the most brilliantly delightfully crazy and imaginative way of expanding upon "Trixie distrusts wheels" I've seen thus far.
I like how elegantly you've slid Twilight's ascention back into your continuity.
Extra bonus points for giving the depressed immortal cliche a solid kick in the shins.
Very nice chapter, and I was quite impressed by the explanation for the wheel mistrust.
Still, even if Twilight's wielding her full alicorn strength, wouldn't tricking Trixie into taking the Amulet off be easier?
At any rate, I rather like the direction this universe is taking. I hope it keeps up.
It seems I keep thinking this every time I read one of the Petriculture stories. It all makes sense now.
I tried to resist, but, alas, I still caught a few:
And I will never think about that episode the same way again. Deceitful, overambitious polygons!
I don't know if it's just me, but something about that line is just absurdly hilarious.
Yeah, it isn't a color! Other people don't believe me when I tell them. It isn't on the color spectrum.
a LITTLE bit emo at the end but all in all I give this chapter a solid rating
I remain colorblind.
Nice rhymes!
On a separate note, I just noticed you added the cravat to Flutters on the cover
Hmm... magenta is an optical illusion...
Pinkie Pie is an imaginary friend...
That truly was the best wheel mistrust explanation ever. Kwakerjak, you are a mad genius.
Kvak's writing brilliance continues to be unparalleled.
2271835
not to mention e = 1/0!+1/1!+1/2!+1/3!+1/4!+1/5!+1/6!...
That is the best reason for not trusting wheels. Ever.
2271467
Sacrilege! Heathen! Your lies shall never displace the truth!
Math jokes.
2272492
Saying that magenta isn't a color or that it's an optical illusion doesn't really fit in with the conventional meanings of those words. Maybe it's not that they don't believe you but they disagree with your definitions.
2279324 It's not on the spectrum. You need to use multiple colors to make it. Then again all color is an optical illusion, it's just how our brains interpret different wavelengths.
Meh, I'm more partial to τ (tau) myself. (6.282)
2271467
Yes, the whole circle! Not twice the circle!
thepimanifesto.com/areas.png
2279881
You know what's nice about π?
For any polygon with k sides, the sum of all the interior angles is (k-2)π. And if it's a regular polygon inscribed in a unit circle, the area is k sin (π/k) cos (π/k).
The area of a circle is πr^2
The tangent function's domain is everything but (n+1/2)π, n∈Z.
The gaussian standard normal is 1/sqrt(π) e^(-x^2)
The cauchy distribution is 1/π(γ/((x−x_0)^2+γ2))
What is the smallest x such that e^(ix) is an integer? τ/2...I mean, π.
I'd rather add a factor of two in occasionally than a factor of one-half. It's much cleaner.
Well, magenta is an optical illusion in the same way that white and black are optical illusions. They are actually composed of multiple wavelengths of light (or none).
So, Pinkie (magenta/pink), Surprise (white), and Penumbra (black) are all illusions?
please no more math, make it stop, make it stop!
my brain doesn't work well with math that's the reason i went along the way of the human mind
great chapter, nice use of the cannon show
WHY. CAN'T. I. UP-VOTE. MOAR!?!?!?!?
Seriously, I wasn't too sure about Twilight's motivation about not using her extra magic myself, but this one? Seriously, this one is more valid than most speculation would be, and likely the last most would guess as the primary reason!
Well done!! Well done indeed!! You've earned yourself high praise for this, and even more with dear Penny's solution to that problem. Also, bravo with the references to season 3 and working in your story to be validated by cannon if NOT in fact cannon itself. Most excellent!!
Anyway, looking forward to the next chapter, and wishing you well in all you endeavors.
Technically, this doesn't rhyme. Without the accent mark over the e, "forte" is pronounced "fort".
2280883
τ radians in a circle?
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According to wiktionary*
(UK) IPA: /fɔt/ or IPA: /fɔtˈeɪ/ or IPA: /ˈfɔteɪ/
(US) IPA: /fɔɻt/ or IPA: /fɔɻtˈeɪ/ or IPA: /ˈfɔɻteɪ/
So, pronouncing it like forté is considered acceptable, and the first episode of Friendship is Witchcraft is saved.
(Actually, until just now, I was not aware that forté with the accent doesn't mean a strength or talent..)
*Which is a wiki, and subject to change and/or vandalism.
2281190 What a coincidence
It's like you've taken every unexplainable loose end from the show and woven them neatly into your own brilliant tapestry.
Incredibly clever, insightful, witty, thought out and just plain brilliant.
When I grow up I want to be an author like Kwakerjak.
Not only did I get some quality reading, I learned about magenta.
Have a nice day.
One of the writer-help groups once had a lecture about doing the proper research for your story.
May I stand up applauding and give you all the wins for this chapter and the link following?
*pretend the obligatory applause gif is here*
More proof that Unicorns are supreme and dirt ponies and feather brains are merely put on Equestria to serve them! All joking aside it must suck to know you are the race that wont be turning into a god. Better luck next time AJ. Also what do you mean by usually? Haven't all alicorns either been morn as such or been unicorns? Hack the defining trait of an Alicorn is their powerful magic. They may have qualities of the other tribes but they don't really matter. earth pony magic doesn't raise the sun or turn baddies to stone.
“Oh, please, not the depressed immortal bit,” Penumbra said derisively. “If other ponies can deal with the death of loved ones, why would it be any different for those that live a long time? And even if it does get too hard to bear, that’s not a problem. Luna’s father explained it to her quite clearly: ‘All ponies must depart from this world eventually, but alicorns do not leave until they are ready to go.’ You’ll see your friends again. It just might take a little longer than you expected, that’s all.”
THANK you!
Though I would have made it more particular--- eternal youth and extreme hardiness aren't exactly immortality. And in Celestia's shoes, I would be strongly motivated to discover a way to grant such longevity to all the ponies.
Okay, packing-up time. You just won all the alicorn stuff.
I love your explanations for Trixie's hatred of wheels and for Zecora's rhyming -- both brilliant!
Foreshadowing for last chapter, or the next story in the cycle?
Science mutha fucka!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The earth pony was hardly unimaginative; she simply used her imagination in a way that was radically different from most ponies.
-Plot related retcon, or something you realized/someone pointed out about her in the show?
Pinkie Pie never bothered with in-depth speculation. Instead, as soon as an idea was somewhat distinct, she would unleash it onto the “real” world. This often resulted in a lot of apparent non sequiturs, but it also meant that she could be extremely insightful when her connections were valid, which happened more often than not.
-Ah, good point.
It also made her mind a very... interesting place.
-And we are about to see her talking to Penumbra in her (that is Pinkie's) own mind? I expect it to look like Discord's Ponyville, but with less freaked out inhabitants.
This was a world where hazy, half-formed ideas drifted through washes of color, like a marriage between impressionism and abstract expressionism,
-Ah, I see...
with occasional accusations of a one-night stand with surrealism.
-
though there was one prominent exception.
-Penumbra's house, the seat of Pinkie's consciousness, or something else entirely?
This was the section of Pinkie’s mind that had been set aside to house Penumbra Noctis when she wasn’t physically present in Equestria.
-Well, one of my guesses was correct. I wonder who built it and look forward to seeing what it looks like.
Penumbra had designed her home in the style of Fallingwater, the most renowned architect of the modern era.
-Is the name a reference to the house built overhanging a waterfall? Also, nice to see it was her idea. I wonder if she did that before or after she found her avocation? Is it made of clouds? Is it a recreation of The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters?
It was precise and geometric, with several long, rectangular overhangs over porches and balconies, all made of brick and concrete in various earth tones that matched the neatly trimmed lawn.
-Right... so nothing like any of those.
After all, magic duels no longer had any legal standing these days, and Penumbra was fairly certain that Twilight could overcome the magical force field that had been put in place to keep her out.
-Interesting points. I wonder if she is traumatized from her "What have I done!?" in trying to take over Equestria? Or maybe Penumbra knows her abilities better than Twilight herself does? Probably not. Twilight seemed to be avoiding a point at the end there.
This was most unexpected, since it had been roughly three days since Twilight’s exile
-Oh, and here I thought this was right afterward and Pinkie would be talking to her to find out what was going on... it also occurs to me that Pinkie would want to talk to SOMEONE since she got her mouth stolen and should have her picture in the dictionary next to "gregarious".
A light patter against the glass eventually got her attention; it rarely rained in Pinkie’s mind, and when it did, it usually meant that her mood had taken a turn for the melancholy.
-Can Pinkie even enter her own mind to the degree that Twilight can? Please don't tell me that Trixie was a SECOND of Twilight's imaginary friends and that Twilight just realized this?
Penumbra rose from her seat and opened the door, and, as she expected, there was Pinkie Pie,
-Ah, so she CAN come in easily... I guess that would have been required for her to spend "a long time" or whatever you said, talking things over with The Nightmare, convincing her to become Penumbra.
“I’ll take anything you have that’s solid enough to chew, please.”
-So Trixie left a hole and Pinkie has been eating through a straw?
“Please, I’ve heard that amateur’s attempt at gloating laughter. It wouldn’t intimidate a cocker spaniel.”
-Doesn't mean the actions she Mwah Ha Ha's over aren't cruel (or even that the sound might not grow grating, rather than ridiculous). I wonder when/if the subject of why Penumbra thinks that Twilight is holding back will come up?
“It does when you back it up with magic spells.
-Spells related to the laughing, such as emulating The Royal Canterlot Voice or a fear effect?
“Why would that stop you?” the pegasus asked. “You’re a shapeshifter.”
-Good point to cover.
The problem isn’t that I can’t make my muzzle reappear, it’s that I can’t get my mouth open to say anything. I’m pretty sure that when Trixie told me to ‘shut up,’ that was part of the spell as well.
-I see!
I mean, I can slide a straw between my lips, so I’ve been surviving on milkshakes and fruit smoothies, but other than that, my lips are sealed.
-See above!
So, I figured it was best to go with the muzzle-free look most of the time, since I don’t want her to start asking questions about how an earth pony managed to overcome really powerful unicorn magic.”
-Will breathing be discussed?
Besides, I’m not sure Trixie would react very well to your cutie mark.”
-Huh? Why would she be especially opposed to it? I guess it is an astronomical thing, and Twilight's COULD be said to be such, so it MIGHT be triggery for Trixie... I also wonder how/if Twilight's studies with Zecora are going.
The earth pony wrinkled her eyebrows. “It’s a circle,” she replied.
-And thus the theme of the story... although it also might be a pi/Pie thing in addition. Still not sure what... wait. Trixie doesn't trust wheels, and I bet you are going to explore that... or just bring it up. We may never find out the CAUSE of Trixie's dislike for circular things.
Therefore, circles don’t exist, and anything that is held to be a circle is actually a deceitful, overambitious polygon.
-Interesting... insane, but interesting. Also, I KNOW that mathmatically you can calculate pi to whatever degree of precision you can actually do the arithmetic for, elsewise we wouldn't be past the 20th digit or so. Of course, neither of them may know that much math, or more importantly, Trixie might not know that much math. Also, "deceitful" and "overambitious" match Trixie (and The Nightmare) very well.
“I’ve heard of irrational hatred, but this is ridiculous!”
-"heard of" is putting it mildly in her case, although "I hate Celestia because I was created to be her, but can't" is at least vaguely rational.
“Actually, it’s more like transcendental hatred: she’s also outlawed compound interest, but she doesn’t seem to have a problem with square roots or golden rectangles. Well, not yet anyway.”
-Ouch... and here I was talking about math, and you STILL caught me off guard with that pun.
“Yeah. If it ever occurs to her that shades of magenta are actually optical illusions, I might be in trouble.”
-I didn't know that they were, although it has occurred to me that sampling a mixture of wavelengths of light with only three different types of sensors (I THINK cone cells use three different types of reactions) probably means that you can get the same color out of vastly different spectroscopic curves. Upon discussing this with my photography geek of a father said... after consideration and investigation, it isn't part of the spectrum, so yes, optical illusion.
“Um, well, I was kind of hoping things would get better on their own. Either Twilight would come back, or you’d return on your own, or our friends would figure out what was really happening. But we’ve pored over every book in the library, and we haven’t found anything.
-Do we know how long it was in canon before they found the book?
-Going to stop here for tonight.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
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And... and I think my mane is starting to de-poof, and I really want to avoid that.”
-Just because it is a sign of depression sufficient to induce delusions? Or does it also limit her imaginary friend powers? Also, I am going to assume you are just ignoring the whole "breathing thing" under the MST3K mantra.
you do know what’s actually going on, right?” Penumbra asked hesitantly.
-With Twilight, with mane-de-poofing, with Trixie(making Penumbra the stand-in for the deus ex machina of the book they found hidden in the library), or with something else? I assume the first. The third, actually makes me wonder if Twilight actually recognized the amulet, and realized that Trixie would only continue to cause problems until... well, she would be assuming that nothing less than petrification or death could solve that problem permanently... maybe the Elements could grant her sanity long enough to have an "What have I done!" moment and remove the amulet, but even that might just petrify her or something.
“Well, sure. For whatever reason, Twilight doesn’t want to use the extra unicorn magic she got when we split you up. I think that maybe she thought that would be cheating, since Trixie only wanted to test herself against Twilight.”
-What. The. Buck. That makes even less sense than her reasoning in Boast Busters. Of course, once someone tells her that Trixie has been "cheating" too with the amulet that might even things out (or did Trixie say that the amulet was a power source?). She might be trying to not utterly crush Trixie's spirit, even at the cost of exile from Ponyville, in which case the key would be Twilight finding out how cruel Trixie is being to Ponyville. *Checks previous chapter* No, it looks like Trixie was implying her power increase was all her own.
“Unlikely,” Penumbra responded. “Did you notice the necklace Trixie was wearing?”
-So Penumbra assumes that Twilight recognized the amulet?
Though it seems that the rumors that it inevitably corrupts the user might be true after all....
-Corruption and insanity... unless the thing with transcendental hatred (still an excellent pun) was pre-existing, which I doubt... maybe a minor philosophical annoyance...
Pinkie Pie, however, perked up immediately. “Really? We need to tell Twilight.”
-Ok, so a weak plot point needed because of 22 minute time limit solved... I wonder if Pinkie can stand next to the "fish-bowl" and materialize Penumbra outside it? Trixie might be unskilled enough in creating a truly impenetrable barrier, or that sort of thing might be esoteric enough she wouldn't even know HOW to block it.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. She knows about it already.”
Pinkie looked confused. “How can you be sure?”
-Very good question... Penumbra MIGHT be making an assumption, but I doubt it.
“Because I spent several weeks trying to convince her to locate it for when we seized the throne. Thus, she already knew that her opponent had attempted to stack the deck in her favor.”
-Ah, that explains it... although I could also see it adding a "there, but for the grace of the diarchs and/or God, go I".
“Hmph,” Penumbra snorted. “Let her come to me.”
-Still a bit of an ego... and she can probably get through the fishbowl easier than Twilight can...
C’mon, Penny, you’re the only one who can do it.
-I see she uses the nickname too... I wonder if Penumbra finds it mildly insulting, and just doesn't say anything because Pinkie is her parole officer? Which also makes me wonder if it was Pinkie who came up with it.
and I can’t use charades or writing to tell the others about the whole by-the-way-we’re-alicorns thing because I Pinkie Promised not to.
-They might need Fluttershy after all?
Also, don’t call me ‘Penny.’”
-Well, I wasn't expecting her to MENTION it even if I was right about her disliking it. I guess it makes sense that she is being more brutally honest given her current mood.
The two of us are the only ones who know enough about magical theory to actually talk to her about it,
-Err... Fluttershy seemed to explain it well enough in the actual episode, and I found that plausible. Then again, here it is more than "Forget beating her straight up, she's cheating, so you need to..." wait... no... both the trick she pulled in canon, and using her full power are "cheating" so I don't necessarily see how one would require more convincing than the other. Of course, in this case, Twilight might need to explain to her friends WHY she was holding back, which I could see requiring more convincing.
Plus, if you do it, then we don’t need a complicated escape plan.”
-Thought so.
“You know how Trixie’s force field basically looked like an upside-down fishbowl?”
-Ah! So they wouldn't be projecting her THROUGH it due to a flaw of not working against imaginary friend materialization, but UNDER it (Twilight materialized Pinkie through at least one wall or window in the school and probably entire buildings if one uses a straight line).
Well, that, and it’s more like a fish tank now, since Trixie decided that the original shape was too spherical to be trusted.
-Nice point of continuity.
Our best guess is that Trixie’s too busy going mad with power to notice details like that.
-Well, plus she isn't a genius... of course, if she knows any RL principles of stage magic then that is exactly the sort of psychological trick she should be aware of since it is what you use on an audience.
that means you can just mist your way through the ground and out onto the other side.
-I forgot she is mist in those cases... I wonder if Pinkie would give her a pass to "possess" Twilight to accelerate the conversation?
“Um, well, when somepony’s friend is being, you know, really stubborn, sometimes the best thing that friend can do is to be, um, forceful.”
-Which Penumbra is good at?
“Pinkie Pie... are you giving me permission to use the Royal Canterlot Voice?”
“Only if it’s absolutely, positively necessary,” the earth pony replied before hastily adding, “and believe me, I’ll be able to find out if it wasn’t.”
-I didn't know that Pinkie had ever forbidden that per se. Also, I see that Pinkie doesn't trust her completely. Then again Penumbra has already demonstrated that she is annoyed at Twilight and being a bit petulant about it since she initially wanted Twilight to come to her.
Deep in the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle was walking on water.
-Ok, so she IS training? Is the power that she got from Penumbra distinct enough that she can tell when she is using it or not?
“Efficiency will win the fight, no well of power can last all night. Let her magic froth and rage, then she will soon fall into your cage.”
-Interesting tactic...
when she noticed that her aura was gaining a purple tint again.
-Ah, I see... but isn't it always purple? I guess not in earlier episodes, and you may be turning that into a plot point?
“Because if you did, Zecora might give you the same advice I would.”
Startled, Twilight jumped into the air and landed back in the pond.
-Nice entrance...
but it was made possible because Trixie’s amulet appears to be corrupting her mind.”
-Ok, so Trixie ISN'T normally that stupid... I guess even in canon she was defeated by a trick that should have been something she would suspect given her profession (assuming she uses trickery, which you seem to agree on).
it looked like the pegasus was using all of her willpower to keep from tearing into her friend.
-Verbally I assume? Also, I wonder how much contact Zecora has had with Penumbra, and how much she was told, guessed, or suspects about her?
it’s unwise to argue in the Everfree.”
-Good point. And I suspect that Penumbra will bring her in on the source or at least the existence of Twilight's extra power in order to win Zecora over.
Fifteen minutes later, Penumbra was sipping some manner of infusion from a gourd
-Where the mugs in canon made from a gourd? Or does Zecora only have two mugs?
“...and that’s how I got into the cloudsmithing business.
-Implies that Zecora knows next to nothing of Penumbra.
So, Twilight really hadn’t told you about the Alicorn Amulet?”
-Interesting that she wouldn't mention that part, rather than just not mentioning her own deeper well.
What she’s been hiding is the obvious solution to her problem,
-I still don't see them as intrinsically connected. I guess Zecora COULD ask how she knows about the amulet, but I don't know why Zecora would since Twilight has GREAT resources anyway. She could even truthfully say "An Alicorn told me."
which, for some unfathomable reason, she does not want to use.
-Ah, so neither Pinkie nor Penumbra have any idea? Or Pinkie just thought that it wasn't her place to tell Penumbra?
Why do you speak like that, if you don’t mind me asking?”
-Fanon incoming!
As structured minds are what we seek, our foals, in rhyme are taught to speak.
-That works.
And if this rhyming leaves you weary, know that it gets much more dreary; with formal speech, one must pursue more complex rhymes, and meter, too.
-Nice...
“That is an oath most grave, it’s true.
-Interesting she knows about that, but so little about Penumbra.
I’ll wait for Twilight to continue. However, she is taking quite a while, drying off like it will go out of style.”
-So she noticed and is calling Twilight on it... very in-character.
“The Alicorn Amulet is enchanted so that only the wearer can remove it. The obvious solution is to trick Trixie into taking it off, but I wanted to try and beat her with magic.”
-So Twilight is being prideful in such a way? Doesn't seem to fit her, especially since merely banishing Trixie from Ponyville would merely continue her insanity, which wouldn't do either Trixie or the rest of Equestria much good.
“One need not be a sage to see that Penumbra vehemently disagrees.”
-Ah, I see. Twilight is lying... although I'm not seeing how Trickery wouldn't solve all her problems. Maybe she is afraid Applejack would need reassurance, or even a Pinkie Promise that trickery (AKA lying through actions) was the only way, before she would be willing to help?
Er, well, I can’t think of what it might be
-This doesn't grammatically match the previous quote.
After all, who better than the Nightmare to advise you on trickery and subterfuge?”
-Did the feline just exit the cloth container? Or did Zecora already know?
“The promise I made had absolutely nothing to do with my past misdeeds, Twilight. I’ve just avoided telling ponies about it to keep misunderstandings at bay.”
-And so she tricked Twilight into pointing out the connection to what Penumbra promised not to say... nice.
and I can’t believe you just rhymed ‘Luna’ with ‘moon, the.’”
-I wouldn't have caught that if you didn't point it out.
“But that means you were not a pegasus born, so what has become of your magical horn?”
-And the trick continues...
“You know, I’d love to answer that question, Zecora, but somepony would have to authorize it first.” By the end of this statement, Penumbra was scowling directly at Twilight Sparkle.
-Cutting it very close...
Zecora’s jaw hung open for several seconds before she was able to formulate a reply. “The magic of an alicorn?! You shouldn’t need my help training your horn. There can’t be many who could match you, perhaps at the most only one or two.”
-Is she including Celestia and Luna as the "one or two"? Or counting only unicorns. At the very least this says that she either doesn't know about Cadance, or is sure that Twilight would now be more powerful than her (although she may have been that already, if only on being able to outmatch her at anything EXCEPT Love-Magic).
d, “my power was equal to Princess Celestia’s. Thus, when combined with the considerable ability Twilight already had, it’s safe to say that she is easily the most powerful unicorn in recorded history, if not all time.”
-Well, she already had probably the most raw potential of any unicorn Celestia had ever seen...
“And all of this time I thought you’d grown weary,” the shaman said as her eyes widened with realization. “In truth, you were of your own power leery!”
-Afraid that Nightmare's power may contain inherent risk of Nightmare's madness? Or just general "power corrupts, especially unearned power"?
“I can feel the difference between your magic and mine. Mine’s pure unicorn magic, but because you were—and technically still are—an alicorn, your unicorn magic has traces of pegasus and earth pony in it. I’ve been trying to avoid tapping into that power, which is why I’ve been stopping whenever my aura starts changing its color.”
-Ok, so that explains HOW, but it still doesn't really explain WHY. Is it because she wants to beat Trixie with unicorn magic only?
“Interesting,” Penumbra said. “But you haven’t answered my question.”
-That's what I said...
And... and that would mean there’s a chance I can go back to being a regular unicorn someday.”
-Scared of immortality? Or just wanting to be able to return Penumbra's lawfully confiscated property if her reform is complete enough? I wonder if Penumbra returning to her head would solve that problem? That would probably require Pinkie's involvement, and Pinkie would probably want to verify with Twilight on that one.
Is it, perhaps, because you fear that your friends will not stay dear?”
-Well, hopefully she is beyond THAT after Boast Busters...
They’re my friends. I know they’ll support me no matter what happens. I mean, that’s what being a friend is about.”
-Right.
“Then, a different concern regarding your friends: Do you not wish to tarry after their lives end?”
-Grape (sic) minds think alike.
“If other ponies can deal with the death of loved ones, why would it be any different for those that live a long time?
-I agree.
And even if it does get too hard to bear, that’s not a problem. Luna’s father explained it to her quite clearly: ‘All ponies must depart from this world eventually, but alicorns do not leave until they are ready to go.’ You’ll see your friends again. It just might take a little longer than you expected, that’s all.”
-Technically suicide, but then again the ethics/morality of it might have a special exception in such cases.
“Wait... if alicorns can’t die without their consent, why did you think you could kill Princess Celestia?”
-Err... I didn't actually think you meant they were THAT immortal. Not sure why you made them so.
“Killing the body and destroying the mind are two very different things,” Penumbra replied, “and you’re trying to change the subject again.”
-Ok... yeah, still not sure why you would go the "body can't be killed by others" route. Just personal preference, or do you have some other reason? I guess it would explain why Celestia got cocooned by Chrysalis instead of avoiding risk by killing her.
“Actually, I’m not concerned at all about being functionally immortal. I asked Cadance about it when I was still a filly, and she explained everything to me. She even used that same quote about not leaving until you’re ready.”
-Ok. Makes sense. Twilight seems rational enough to not turn down "all the time to learn that you want".
“Are you worried that all this power will corrupt you? Because as your previous tempter, I can vouch that your ethical resolve is extremely difficult to circumvent. In fact, I don’t think I entirely succeeded, given that you managed to find a way to attempt a power grab in such a lawful, orderly fashion that the Princesses didn’t feel any need to pardon you.”
-Excellent points, but the fact that she is making them indicates from a narrative POV they aren't applicable.
“Celestia certainly thinks I can handle it. After Pinkie Pie mentioned the alicorn thing in a friendship report, she told me that she thought I would be a great Princess.”
-Ok, alternate path to Princesshood from canon, and as others have pointed out in various places across the fandom, flight is of little benefit when you can teleport, to which I would add that while Big Mac may be able to drag a house easily, Twilight can PROBABLY lift it equally easily, and Twilight has no great need to grow plants really well... although I guess if she learned zebra alchemy and can do it then being able to cultivate her own ingredients wouldn't be anything to sneeze at.
--To be continued.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
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“it turns out that she’s been grooming me to be her successor this whole time, which means that I’d have eventually gotten everything Nightmare was tempting me with if I’d ignored her.”
-Ah, so Star-Swirl's book was still in the plan, and may actually still happen, just because the wings would let everyone REMEMBER to respect her, especially foreign dignitaries, and just because you can't be killed doesn't mean you can't have a leg broken temporarily, and the earth-pony side might help with that now that I think of it.
“Twilight, how many times must I tell you not to refer to my past identity in the third person when I’m present?” Penumbra asked with a wry grin.
-Interesting difference of opinion... Seems Penumbra is trying to accept blame and Twilight is trying to deny Penumbra's guilt. Of course, they are both right to an extent.
The smile threw Twilight off. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine. I just find the irony of the situation to be amusing; that’s all.”
-What irony?
Twilight decided to brush this off and continued:
-Drat... maybe that Trixie uses the third person? Except she DOESN'T any more.
“Apparently, whenever a pony, usually a unicorn, reaches a level of enlightenment necessary to create new magic, they can become an alicorn and join the line of succession to the Equestrian throne if they choose. In fact, Princess Celestia said that she had originally planned to have me complete an unfinished spell by Star Swirl the Bearded. But when Pinkie and I created a new spell to split up your power, we essentially fulfilled the criteria necessary for royal titles, in addition to discovering a previously unknown path to ascension.”
-Princess Pinkie? Can they share credit for creating new magic? Also note that "Princess Pinkie" is often considered to spell doom of one sort or another... then again, I could see her being a good public speaker, even if she would be a horrible lawmaker. So she gets more of a "bully pulpit" than a "throne". This does imply that that spell will be saved for another pony... I'd like to say Rarity, but I doubt she has the power to pull it off.
“I don’t want to be an alicorn because I... I don’t deserve it.”
-AH! Now THAT makes sense. I wonder how this will resolve? Penumbra re-entering her and Nightmare Twilight rising again (for the cause of Good), is still a possibility, but if so I expect it will take them a while to figure it out.
This was met with several more seconds of silence before Penumbra spoke up. “Would you mind running that by me again?”
-Seems pretty obvious to me...
The purple unicorn looked particularly ashamed of herself as she answered, “Before Pinkie Pie stopped me, I... I tried to murder Penumbra.”
-Ah... and given the fact that the only villain to ever DIE on the show was MAYBE Sombra, and the generally forgiving nature of Ponies... Then again two counts of conspiracy to Omnicide (or would The Nightmare really have let everypony starve if she had succeeded in taking Celestia's place?), and one count of attempted Mental-Regicide actually technically COULD justify a harsher sentence than either Discord or Sombra.
With the metaphorical 800-pound gorilla finally revealed, Penumbra let out a puff of breath that briefly blew her mane away from her right eye. “So that’s it? You think the fact that you beat me to a pulp and were fully prepared to kill me disqualifies you?”
-I'm thinking that "I forgive you, so forget about it." isn't going to be a convincing argument here, since it isn't guilt, but worthiness that is the issue. IE "it could happen again".
but that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! AND I LIVE IN PINKIE PIE’S HEAD!
-Well, that does put things in perspective... and she only is part-time there now.
I’m the Nightmare! Are you seriously going to sit there and tell me that I’m somehow more deserving of my alicorn status than you?
-Now THAT is a very valid point. Of course, if Twilight could figure out a way to give her alicornhood to... say Rarity (who would want a throne the most) or Applejack (who wouldn't MIND it, and could be trusted not to abuse her power), then I could see that. Actually, if she did that and then used Starswirl's spell, that could be a net gain for Equestria. Of course, by the Diarch's standards, Rarity/Applejack wouldn't have earned it.
Yet here I am, an alicorn all the same, and unlike you, I don’t have the option of being a ‘normal pony’ because I’ve never had any ‘pure’ pegasus magic.”
-In other words "Boo. Hoo. Cry me a river... wimp."?
Penumbra squinted at Twilight as she considered her response. When she came up with it, she had to fight the urge to jump into the air in celebration of her own cleverness. “I forgive you.”
-As I said, that isn't the point. Penumbra was forgiven, but that doesn't mean that Celestia is going to tell Pinkie that Penumbra doesn't need a parole officer. Actually, this reminds me of a Celtic-themed story by Steven R. Lawhead about a pair of guys from RL Earth who get drawn through into a magical land... anyway, the point is, in one of the books, there is an archvillian who is brought before the high king (who is one of the guys from earth). And the archvillian claims Nod (I think that is the write spelling). Which, the king's advisor explains is basically throwing himself on the King's Mercy, but with catch that denying it sets an upper limit on the King's Justice in the eyes of the people or something. So the High King (who, remember, doesn't know all the rules) asks his advisor if he has to let the guy off scot free if he grants this. The advisor replies that he would only be able to do the bare minimum to protect his citizens... and since the archvillian is so powerful, the High King banishes him to a wasteland beyond all lands where humans dare to live. Moral of the story: Great criminals require great precautions.
You can keep feeling haunted by your actions if you want, but I say that’s hardly a reason to keep that intellect of yours confined to a single lifetime and deprive Equestria of all the advances it could discover, to say nothing of how your administrative abilities could streamline the government bureaucracies.
-Excellent points.
And besides, Pinkie and I would miss you.”
-Also a very good point.
“Pinkie’s already made her decision?”
-Oh, good point... I forgot that for that to matter much they both would have to be immortal.
“Of course. She’s already Pinkie Promised to stick around until I’m ready to leave, to make sure that I’ll always have a friend.
-That is very Pinkie.
Now, are you going to join us, or will you keep playing Little Miss Emotional Wreck?”
-Good argument.
“Well... when you put it that way... I guess...” Twilight finally looked Penumbra directly in the eye, and she was smiling. “I guess there’s no reason not to. After all, if it doesn’t work out, I can just get ready to leave earlier, right?”
-This could lead to trouble down the road if she decides "it isn't working out", which, with her fear of failure could happen easily... for instance if she has to do something on the order of Celestia's banishment of Luna.
Indeed, it appeared that the zebra had resorted to using a pile of dish towels to daub her eyes.
-Zecora doesn't seem like that much of an emotional type...
“Yet the issue at hoof is still unresolved, so to deal with Trixie, a plan I’ve evolved....”
-Yeah, I guess a plan wouldn't HURT, even if Twilight PROBABLY could just win a rematch straight out... then again in canon Trixie needed to be tricked into WANTING the rematch.
with occasional accusations of a one-night stand with surrealism PFFFFF XD
Okay, that explanation for the wheels and circles... please, stop blowing my mind. I need my mind.
An optical illusion is something that looks like something it is not. Magenta is an example of an impure color. If it looked like a pure color, you might be able to call it an optical illusion. It doesn't look like a pure color, though. Even if you take something where they do look similar, like a mix of red and green vs. pure yellow, it can hardly be considered an optical illusion, since you were never built to distinguish them in the first place. Your eyes aren't built to figure out the entire spectrum, just enough to tell what to eat and what to run away from.
From the page you linked to: "Magenta is the only color that does not exist as a single wavelength of light." That is outright false. White is the most obvious example, but there's infinitely more. Pure color is the exception, not the rule.
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You obviously did not read the same article did. You understand that the rainbow is a visual representation of all wave-lengths we can see right? And there is no magenta on that spectrum. So it is imposable for us to see it if it is not on the spectrum, yet we do. Hence, as this color can not exist in the visible light we see, it must be formed in our mind. Therefore, it is an illusion and does not exist.
Try the experiments the article gives and read the article more thoroughly. If you are still not convinced, then I doubt I can convince you. But I will say this: I have had an interest in color since I was ~7 and learned that the color we see it every color but the color of the object that light hits. This lead me realized that me perception of reality is a figment constructed in my mind at ~16, and concluded at ~19 that there is no way to tell if the colors I see are seen the same way by me as by others.
In-fact, I have a red-green color weakness. This meas I can see these colors, but sometimes I confuse them: I see a dark purple car where a car is dark green (unless I look at it in the right light and know to look for green). So I know don't see the colors of the world as others do; but for years did not realize this because I could still see everything everyone else did. And, to me, this proves the existence of colors in the mind that don't exist in reality.
I understand that this view point may be hard to understand and except, but I have lived it, and that is enough for me.
In respectful (if somewhat snide) disagreement,
The Smileyrat
PS. For those of you that don't know what article I am referring to, the article is linked to in the author's notes.