To the Moon
Luna tapped on the door to Celestia’s office, and was immediately asked to come in. She likely didn’t need to knock, there was no doubt in her mind that Celestia wouldn’t mind her company, but it was polite. At this time, Celestia was going through written proposals: the Canterlot nobility and other such notable ponies pandering for attention and money. The majority of them were politely turned down, placed under “this will be given due consideration at a later point of time” due to “Current, more urgent” matters, or “lost in transit.” A glance at the fireplace in the room revealed a large pile of ash in the bottom, likely accountable for a number of letters inexplicably lost today. However, instead of a look of boredom, or disappointment, or revulsion, Celestia was looking at her current proposal with a warm smile.
Luna always suspected that the temperature in a room rose a degree or two when Celestia was happy, but she was never able to prove it.
“Hello, sister,” Luna said as she stepped forward. “What has you in such good spirits? A particularly humorous proposal? Or is this perhaps, despite all expectations, something that is honestly a good idea?”
Celestia rolled up the scroll with her magic, and handed it to Luna. “Read it,” She said simply.
Luna took the scroll with her own magic, consumed about why her sister would roll up the scroll if she wanted her to read it. Her eyes fell upon the seal: it was not one that she recognized, a stylized starburst in purple wax-wait. “Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked, surprised. “Twilight Sparkle sent in a proposal?”
Celestia leaned in, and whispered, “Read it.” Her face did nothing to conceal her mirth at this scroll.
Luna opened it, and on a whim read the title aloud. “A Proposal to Encourage Foreign Relations and Information Trade by a Visit and Exchange of Magical Techniques... has Twilight written a formal proposal to communicate her desire to study abroad?”
Celestia let loose a laugh. “It’s more than a proposal! It’s the best proposal I have read in the last hundred years! She’s estimated costs for trips to a number of different nations, down to the time, manpower, bits, travel, and even postal expenses. This is not an idea that needs to be refined nor solidified: I could very well approve one of these plans right here and now and it would go perfectly. She even has notes on how her group would deal with various disasters and twists of fate, including situations unique to various countries. The cost-benefit analysis is the most in-depth I’ve seen, and has a scientific margin of error. She has even estimated a number of worst-case scenarios, in case she is wrong in some of her other calculations. I am sorely tempted to frame this, Luna. It’s like a work of art.”
Celestia stood up and walked around her cdesk. “The only thing up in the air is where to send her. Any ideas, Luna? Trotsylvania? Saddle Arabia? I’ve heard interesting things about Germane engineering, and while the Neighwegians don’t have a lot of magic they do have a very interesting way of life.”
“I don’t think that Twilight wishes to learn how to wrestle moose, sister,” Luna said with a smile, “However, I have an interesting idea on what to do. Not really a foreign power, but a unique culture with interesting magic. What is more, I can say with certainty that she will be quite safe there, and learn things known by very few people.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Is that so, Luna? Well, if you want to treat her to such a thing, I certainly won’t stop you.”
Twilight entered the room, equal parts giddy and confused. Her proposition had been accepted… sort of? And now Luna was going to accompany her to… somewhere. She didn’t know where! Plus, instead of starting with a carriage and being assigned guards, she was told to take her luggage to Luna’s personal quarters. It was late at night, too, so it seemed unlikely that Twilight would start her journey now. What was going on?
Luna was smiling. That was good, but the details of the smile were what was important. Twilight had learned a long time ago that Celestia communicated a lot through smiles: a sincere smile, a mischievous smile, a diplomatic smile, a fake smile… really, princess smiles were like an entire sub-language; A sub-language that Twilight had yet to fully understand, especially now that she had been seeing more of the princesses in diplomatic situations. Unfortunately, Twilight didn’t know Luna well enough to guess what was going on behind that smile.
“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna started, “you are ready for departure, I presume?”
“I am,” Twilight replied, “But where to? You haven’t told me where you are sending me, and I don’t recognize any of my plans.”
“Suffice to say that the location’s lack of diplomatic value is more than made up for by its historical value. Now prepare yourself… and perhaps pay attention, as this is a powerful long-range teleportation spell that I do not doubt you will find useful if you can use it.” Luna closed her eyes, and her horn glowed. From its tip swam a black mist, with points of light in it like a starfield. Twilight watched with wonder: she had a certain, innate understanding of all unicorn magic, but this spell was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was by far a unique spell, utilizing energy that struck her as familiar, but she couldn’t place where she had seen it before.
When the starfield faded, Twilight looked out at a unique landscape: grey sand… no, grey dust as far as the eye can see. The air felt thin, and though the landscape was bright the night sky was very sparse. Twilight didn’t recognize any constellations, and she couldn’t help but feel that the stars looked a little funny. Where was she?
Luna walked toward a nearby hill. In its side was a small rock face, and in the rock face was a round door about Twilight’s size. There wasn’t much drawing attention to it; it was a different grey from the surrounding rock and it had some sort of sigils written around the circumference in navy blue paint, but that was it. It had a basic knob, Twilight recognized, but apart from that didn’t know what to make of it. Luna knocked on the door, and Twilight waited. Presumably this would be explained in time.
Of course, the thing that opened the door only added more questions. It was dark blue, not dissimilar to the color of Luna’s coat, but that was as far as the similarities went. Its eyes were like a pair of black pits, and its face was surprisingly flat with no muzzle or even a little nose like humans had. There was a pair of antenna sticking out of its forehead, the tips of which were bulbous and glowed cyan. It had no mane… nor a coat, only smooth skin. Adding to the confusion, it had eight legs, each one of which ended in a clawed hand. When it looked at the pair, its eyes widened, its jaw dropped, and its antenna perked up.
Luna smiled at the thing like it was a good friend. “I have a puzzle for you,” She said simply.
That was more than enough for the creature, who smiled a smile of sheer joy and rushed back inside what Twilight assumed to be its home. “Come in!” It called from inside. Its voice was not as odd as its body, but still odd. “Do come in!”
Luna gestured for Twilight to go in first, and she did so. The room was simple enough: It was a dome, and the floor was bare except for two brightly-colored pillows, one very big that was almost black-blue and one not as big that was a lighter (but still dark) blue, and a pair of squat tables. The inside of the dome, however, was adorned with a great many sigils carved into the rounded surface. Twilight wondered if they were a language… or perhaps magical runes? It was possible it was just art, but if so what was seen as artistic about it?
The blue thing (Twilight still didn’t know what to make of it) brought another pillow and placed it next to the large pillow. It then went and laid on the dark blue pillow, while Luna sat down on the larger pillow. Twilight quickly sat on the pillow next to Luna’s, having successfully guessed that this was her pillow (it was red, so it didn’t match her color as well as Luna’s pillow did her.)
The host (It was more polite to call it than ‘the thing,’ even if only in Twilight’s head) smiled up at Luna. “Are you simply Moon now?” It asked playfully, “Since it would seem that the Nightmare has left."
“I am now Luna,” Luna said with a nod, “and this is Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, meet Stillnight. She likes puzzles.”
“It’s good to meet you, Stillnight.” Twilght said. Stillnight watched Twilight… intensely. At least, Twilight thought so: it was hard to tell with those big, black eyes. Of course, Twilight was probably staring, too… why wasn’t anyone saying anything? Twilight looked up at Luna… and Luna looked down at Twilight. Her smile revealed very little. Was Twilight expected to continue the introduction herself?
Twilight opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted by Stillnight shushing her and putting a finger to her lips. “Ah-ah. The joy of a puzzle is figuring it out. I don’t want the puzzle to tell me the answers, that’s no fun.”
Twilight blinked. She was a puzzle now? What was going on?
Stillnight leaned back a bit. “You are a student, both by nature and by profession. You usually learn from someone else, but know Luna personally. Do you usually learn under Luna’s sister?”
Twilight boggled. “Yes-”
“Good! And this is a case where Luna is teaching you instead. Not what you were expecting, I see. You were expecting something else? What were you expecting?”
“Uh,” Twilight blinked, “Well… ah… how did you know that I was a student, and…”
“You looked at my runes with curiosity,” Stillnight said as she gestured to the carvings. “In your eyes, I saw that you wanted to understand. Similarly, I saw that you deferred to Luna when you wanted explanation. You are comfortable around her, but you don’t understand her as well as someone who you have learned under for a long time. Therefore, it was logical that you learned under someone else near to Luna… her sister.”
Twilight blinked. “That’s very impressive. But… how do you know Luna?”
Stillnight smiled at Twilight. “Come now, don’t you like puzzles, too?”
Twilight thought. Okay… Stillnight recognized Luna as Nightmare Moon… without the nightmare part. But that would be impossible, unless Stillnight was over a thousand years old… and even then it’s more likely that she would know her as Luna. There was no way for her to know Nightmare Moon unless-
No way. No way.
Twilight turned toward Luna. “Luna… where are we?”
Luna smiled, and finally revealed some information. “The moon.”
The moon. Twilight Sparkle was on the moon.
On the moon.
The moon.
Twilight’s mind boggled. She knew that moon was an actual, physical thing, but… to be on it? To talk to someone on it-
Life. There was life on the moon.
…Life whose initial ambassador from pony kind was Nightmare Moon!
…But she was happy to see Luna, like an old friend, not like a threat or enemy. What was going on?
Stillnight leaned in, right up into Twilight’s face, and smiled at her. “Looks like confusion makes your brain stop. I think you should work on that; train yourself so that confusion makes your brain work harder. It’s really useful!”
Twilight now knew what Rarity felt like before passing out. She managed to fight off the urge (perhaps thanks to the earth pony magic in her due to her alicorndom) and turned to Luna. “Luna… please tell me what is going on? Please? I don’t understand.”
Luna laughed heartily for a moment before pulling herself under control. “Twilight Sparkle, I want you to learn more of the inhabitants of the moon, their culture, their magic, and their way of life. It is unusual, for sure, and I feel you will find many of their ways confusing at first, but there is no doubt in my mind that we could learn much from them… and they much from us. Will you take this task, Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight’s head spun. The gravity of the situation shook her, as did the sheer amount of unknowns. There was no reading that could prepare her, no books to look up, only the sheer emptiness of discovery.
Twilight realized that she would be the one writing the book.
“I… yes.” Twilight stuttered, “I will! I-if you’re sure, Princess Luna. I’ll trust your judgment in the matter.”
“No, Twilight,” Luna said as she shook her head. “I will trust your judgment. You may find that this task is not meant for you, and if this is so I will not hold it against you. Today is Monday, I propose that I return on Saturday to examine your findings thus far and give you the option to return to Equestria if you so desire.”
Twilight nodded. “I agree, that sounds like a good idea.”
Luna then turned to Stillnight. “Stillnight, will you-”
“Yes!” Stillnight declared, rearing up on her two hind sets of legs, “I will house her, and teach her, and tell her tales of the moon. I will see to it she isn’t in danger, at least not any danger she doesn’t put herself in, and have her meet my friends, and all of that good stuff. I know I’m going to learn from this, and you, Luna, know how much I love to learn. It will be my honor!”
Luna smiled. “It is decided, then. Stillnight, I have much to do tonight, and wish it as I may I cannot stay for long enough to speak with you at length. Rest assured I will make time to do so on Saturday. Twilight,” Luna once again turned to the student, “Much of this moon’s, and this people’s, history is entwined with… my own. Do not be afraid to learn of my past here. I believe that it is time that someone else learn of those years, as well.” Luna then stood, said, “I shall see you both on Saturday, farewell,” and disappeared in a smoke-like starfield.
Twilight took a deep breath. Some part of her wanted to panic, but it was beaten down and shushed by the rest of her. She was curious, she was cautions, she was on the moon and that was awesome, and overall had entirely too much going on to panic over something like being left on the moon by Luna with a stranger for four or five days.
“It fits her well, don’t you think?” Stillnight asked Twilight. Twilight blinked at her in confusion. “Luna,” Stillnight stated, “It fits her. It fits her much better than ‘Nightmare Moon’ did. Sometimes, it felt like she wore Nightmare Moon as a costume, like a child playing to be something they are not. Sometimes, Nightmare Moon was armor and weapons, capable of taking on what Luna could not. Sometimes, Nightmare Moon was her only companion, and sometimes her jailor. I wonder if Nightmare Moon is really gone, or just buried deep inside her.”
Twilight took a moment to digest this. Stillnight had known Nightmare Moon, and apparently quite well… or did she? She seemed to have the ability to get to know people just from watching them, it was possible that she got to know Nightmare Moon just from observation. If so, then it was also entirely possible that in time Stillnight would get to know Twilight better than Twilight knew herself.
Hmm. If Stillnight was learning about Twilight, and Twilight was learning from Stillnight, maybe Twilight would learn something about herself.
“Well, Stillnight,” Twilight started, “Could you please tell me about yourself? I don’t learn as fast as you do.”
Stillnight nodded. “I live a bit away from a town, this is my home. I have five rooms; which I admit seems a bit excessive, but I like the space. Some think I’m wasteful with space, but this big room is big enough for all my friends so hah!”
Twilight blinked. The room was about the size of a living room… give or take, it was hard to tell with the domed ceiling and the fact is was mostly circular. In any case, Twilight found it hard to believe that this was considered a waste of space. “How big are homes normally?” She asked, curious.
“Three rooms: one for living in, one for resting in, and one for keeping in.” Stillnight counted off on her fingers. “But I always liked to have more space than most mondgeschopfe, and when Nightmare Moon came to see me regularly she made me a room for meeting in, this room!”
Twilight blinked, having been completely blindsided by that word. “Mond-ges-chop…f?”
Stillnight smiled. “It is my kind, what I am… like, you are a pony? Of the subkind alicron, yes? I am a mondgeschopfe.”
Twilight shook her head. “Do you know where that word came from?” It didn’t sound like the kind of word that a creature would use to refer to itself.
Stillnight nodded. “It was the name given to my kind by Nightmare Moon when she first found them, a long time ago. It’s a very nice story! But a time for stories can come later, now you need to get to know your new home, for my home is your home while you are here. This is my room for meeting, and the largest room in my home. Through there is my room for resting.” Stillnight pointed toward a doorway in the wall and moved toward it. Twilight followed, and noticed that the doorway was a bit smaller than what she was used to. The ‘room for resting’ (which Twilight assumed was like a bedroom) was much smaller than the first room, and filled with pillows of various sizes and a few different blankets. Twilight would less call it a bed and more of a nest. For that matter, the room was small enough that it didn’t have anything else: the room for resting really was just for resting. Its size reminded Twilight of a ‘three-pony’ tent she once spent a week in with her parents. Which is to say, it could technically fit three ponies, but realistically speaking it could fit two, or one comfortably.
“All four of the rooms of my home go to the room for meeting,” Stillnight said as she pointed to another doorway, “But they also go to the rooms next to it. It’s pretty neat! The next room is the room for living, and next to that is the room for food. They say it’s silly to have a whole room for food, but I think it helps me make better food. Past that is the room for keeping, where I keep things.”
Twilight thought. Oh, it was like a large apartment: one bedroom, one living room, a kitchen and dining room, and then another whole room for storing your stuff. Small, but big enough to be comfortable for a pony with not a lot of money.
…or so she thought at first. It turned out that though the room for resting was by far the smallest room in Stillnight’s home, the rest of them weren’t as big as a comparably pony room. The room for living had shelves and a table, and the room for food had a pantry and food preparation area, it was like a smaller version of pony rooms. Overall, Twilight figured that this home was very small. Was Stillnight in dire financial straits?
Stillnight noticed Twilight’s ponderings, and turned to her curiously. “There’s something wrong with my home?”
“No!” Twilight said defenseively, which only seemed to irk Stillnight.
“I can tell lies,” She said simply, “Don’t even lie to me to be polite, I prefer honestly always, even if you don’t want to hurt my feelings. My home is not what you expected. It is... meager? Underwhelming?”
“Small,” Twilight admitted. “I think your home is very small. Some houses, that’s a kind of home, where I come from have rooms as big as two of yours, and even more specialized. Well, except for storage rooms. Some ponies have two or three of those.”
Stillnight went, “Oh, oh!” and nodded. “Right. You are a pony, and so you’re more used to pony architecture, like the castle. Much bigger, a lot more rooms. Oh. Yes, to you this must seem very small.” Stillnight looked around again, re-evaluating her dwelling with this information.
Twilight nodded at Stillnight’s observation. “Yes. I’m not used to living in a castle, but I’m used to much larger rooms than this. Wait, you have a castle? Actually, that can wait. The whole point of my being here is to learn about how you live, so it makes sense to live as a guest in one of your homes. It might just take a while to get used to. At the very least I should give it a try.”
Stillnight nodded and smiled. “That’s a good spirit. And yes, Nightmare Moon built a castle here in her stay. It’s very big! It’s the only kind of pony architecture on the moon.”
Twilight shook her head. “All by herself? That’s hard to believe. Or, well, she was a fully-powered alicorn, wasn’t she? And she had a thousand years. I guess if you get bored in that time, building a castle is as good of a hobby as anything else.”
Stillnight nodded. “Nightmare Moon re-organized my home in merely a minute. I have no doubt that she could build a whole castle.”
Twilight opened her mouth to ask about Nightmare Moon ‘re-organizing’ Stillnight’s home, but Stillnight interrupted her by putting a finger to her mouth. “There will be time for stories later! What do you want to do now? Rest?”
Twilight shook her head. “Rest? Why-” a yawn suddenly forced itself out of Twilight’s throat, and she blinked. “You… saw signs that I was tired, didn’t you? It’s the middle of the night, and I… wait. If this the time of day when most… mondgeschopfe are awake and about?”
Stillnight looked confused. “Some. For some, it varies, depending on what they want to get done and-oh. Oh, Nightmare Moon told me about it. Most ponies have a… ‘circadian rhythm’ which says when they should sleep. That was part of why… ah, Nightmare Moon.”
“Yeah, likely,” Twilight said with a frown. “Don’t… mondgeschopfe have circadian rhythms?” And a word for themselves that wasn’t… twelve letters? Twilight noted to ask Stillnight how to spell that word later.
Stillnight shook her head. “Not really. I am awake when I want to be, and sleep enough to be awake at those times. There is no… internal body clock telling me that any time is always time to be asleep. There is only what habits you set up and how much rest you need.”
Twilight thought about that. It reminded her of a research paper she had read on cats: cats don’t have a circadian rhythm, either, so they are up on and off throughout the day and night and make up for it with frequent naps. Twilight nodded in understanding. “Well, I’ll have to adjust my sleep cycle to better match yours, most likely. For now, I think I’ll take a two-hour nap. If you could please wake me up after two hours and we can continue?”
Stillnight nodded. “Make yourself comfortable in the room for resting! I will wake you in two hours.”
Twilight went into the ‘room for resting’ and sorted some of the pillows into a rough bed. She picked one of the blankets, and lay back and looked at the ceiling. The odd, runic symbols looked back down at her-
Wait, there were runes in here that were like the ones in the first room. In addition, now that Twilight thought about it, there were runes in all the rooms! That no doubt had some kind of cultural significance. Now that she was looking for them, she noticed some runes on the blanket she had, too! Whatever these runes were, they were obviously very important to be so common. Twilight couldn’t think of anything quite so common in Equestria.
Well… there were apples in Sweet Apple acres, or cupcakes and balloons at sugarcube corner, gems at carousel boutique… Twilight slowly realized just how odd Equestria might look to an outside observer. This was bound to be an interesting four days… perhaps even longer.
Stillnight looked up at the skies. Nightmare Moon, now Luna, always had a gift for improvisation… but that did not mean that she did not plan. Stillnight saw the signs. There was something more going on here than Twilight Sparkle learning about mondgeschopfe. The question was what.
Stillnight did not know Luna well enough to guess: the subtle changes in body language belied much greater changes in her mind, but she still knew enough to know more than people thought she knew.
“Of course, not everything can be easy. Life would be so drab if it were. The hardest puzzles are the funnest. The question is, what combination of you, I, and Twilight Sparkle are you thinking of?”