Across the Boundary

by Forthwith


Serious Business

Twilight gazed upon the meeting room she had constructed, re-dubbing it the Council of the Elements over its old name: Vacant Room 4-B.

With her hasty construction and her Sweetie-Belle- and Pinkie-Pie-proofing of her lab competing for her time, the interior design was minimal at best. A single spell lit the room, and the walls were flat and uninteresting.

In a circle about the center of the room Twilight had built a small, satisfying moat with a spell generating a clockwise current to avoid stagnating the water. On a whim, she had fetched a pink and white lotus to place in the moat as decoration.

Spanning the gap were six, evenly spaced miniature bridges leading to six chairs placed about a circular table. On the eastern chair, Twilight had engraved her cutie mark.

Only one task remained.

How do I make this socially optimal?

Teleporting on top of the table, Twilight faced the western chair and engraved her adorable student’s cutie mark on it. Or at least an interpretive imagining of what it would look like. She went with a mix of one of Rarity’s diamonds and a six-pointed star.

Hmm, I wonder if that’s too presumptive of a choice. Cutie marks are pretty personal. Twilight tapped a hoof on the ground a few times and dismissed the thought.

No. She wears my cutie mark on her saddlebags, so it’s probably fine.

I might want to have a talk with her about that, actually. I never did that with Celestia and it’s still kind of uncomfortable.

Anyway, Sweetie Belle goes across from me so I don’t have to look at anypony else. Then I can put Lyra and Trixie flanking her. I think she’d benefit from alternative views on magic.

That leaves Pinkie Pie at my right. Which is…less than ideal. And then Flash Sentry…

No. Let’s start over.

Twilight removed every cutie mark but her own and Sweetie Belle’s and promptly placed Flash Sentry’s to the right of Sweetie Belle’s.

No, no, no! Flash Sentry does not get to be that close to my student!

Removing off both of their cutie marks, Twilight placed Sweetie Belle’s to the right of hers and put Flash Sentry’s on the seat directly across.

She promptly erased it, ear and eye twitching once.

Unacceptable. Flash Sentry does not sit across from me.

Instead, let’s put Trixie to my left and then Flash Sentry right after. That way Trixie being Trixie will completely blot him out.

Twilight gave herself a magical pat on the back and then frowned.

Okay, so that doesn’t work. Trixie would probably throw a fit.

Sighing, Twilight took a step back – metaphorically and literally – and sat down. Summoning a small illusion of the table, Twilight placed her cutie mark on one seat.

Alright, so let’s treat this like the simple logic puzzle it is. There’s rotational and reflectional symmetry, so that cuts down the solution space by twelve.

Parameters then.

I refuse to sit next to or across from Flash Sentry, Twilight thought, adding his cutie mark to the two available spaces.

I want Sweetie Belle next to or across from me. That leaves only two non-trivial choices for her, and Flash Sentry’s placement forces her next to me and him across from her.

Nodding to herself with a slightly smug grin, Twilight checked to make sure she had not idly removed either of their cutie marks and then forgotten.

Right, now for the other three.

Trixie probably does not want to sit next to me.

I do not want to sit next to Lyra Hear – next to Lyra.

Well, that just leaves Pinkie Pie between Flash Sentry and me. I guess that might work out. She’ll provide a buffer with her antics. But at the same time, her being next to Flash Sentry might fuel his…ugh…infatuation.

I can’t ask her to not wear Kindness, even if she seemed to manage being apart from it well. But still, I am not going to start dating – especially not now and with him – and Pinkie Pie’s meddling could cause problems. Maybe I should just take one for the team and sit next to Lyra.

Twilight lit her horn and summoned up her magic only to let the power fade away.

It’s – it’s too soon for us to sit next to each other. Sure, it’ll distract me from Flash Sentry, but not in a good way.

Sighing, Twilight carved Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark into the chair to her chair’s left.

For the greater good…

Sighing again and standing up, Twilight walked across the table to the remaining pair of chairs.

So the last question then, is who sits across from me, and who sits next to Sweetie Belle? Either should be fine next to Sweetie Belle. They both know magic to an appreciable degree, so they’ll both be good for her.

On the other side, neither of them know Flash Sentry, so that should be an irrelevant factor. But then again, Flash Sentry might know of Trixie since she’s apparently famous now to some degree instead of infamous.

But I don’t want a seapony next to Sweetie Belle. Hmm… And yet, Lyra definitely doesn’t act insane or psychopathic. Maybe a bit too much of an overdeveloped sense of fear. Perhaps in a case of overcompensation in the transformation from seapony to unicorn.

Now that I think about it, she’d be an pretty good test subject for the mental effects of polymorphing. Celestia and I are never much affected, but Lyra does seem to exhibit a remarkable difference. But at the same time, it could be that external circumstances played a key role in her behavior.

And in comparison to my other shapeshifting science project, she didn’t evolve to have that magic form a core part of her species. Not that seaponies evolved in the classical sense.

Anyway, changelings don’t seem to be affected by the change much either. Although, I did do those studies shortly after Esp started ‘finding himself’ so Note to Self: Rerun the species-based transformation tests on Esp now that he’s had more time to work acting out of his system and to spend with Octavia Melody.

Or ideally find a changeling foal – or foals – that was born and raised in Equestria.

Idly playing with her hooves, Twilight made a preliminary review of which tests she wished to rerun when a thought struck her. Knitting her brows, she asked, What was I doing…

Actually noticing her surroundings instead of merely looking at them, Twilight facehoofed.

Oh right. Social optimization. Of course.

The question remains then. Who do I put across from me?

I suspect Trixie would be a better mentor figure for Sweetie Belle, but at the same time, she’s another unicorn. I think Celestia and I can cover unicorn magic well enough that if I were to choose between another unicorn’s take on unicorn magic and a sane seapony’s, I would go with the seapony’s to provide variety. Our magic is essentially identical, but the focus is heavily skewed given the drastically different ecosystem.

And that also keeps us out of direct line of sight of each other.

But it puts Trixie and me in direct line of sight. Hmm… I don’t dislike Trixie, but does she hate me enough to justify swapping with Lyra? I guess if Luna is anything to go by, the answer is yes.

Yet, I do know enough courtly niceties to know that she could also take the displacement as a slight against her. It sounds like Luna raised her as Celestia did me, so she probably knows that tradition as well. But that argument could run both ways if she thinks I’m putting her there for that reason.

Ugh, I have insufficient knowledge to make this decision.

Twilight fell to her rump and pulled out a coin from her bag of holding.

Heads, and I place Trixie across from me. Suns, and I place Lyra across from me.

A flip of a coin later and Twilight placed Trixie’s cutie mark on the western chair, directly across from hers. She then finished by placing Lyra’s cutie mark on the remaining chair, took a deep breath, and nodded once.

Alright. I’m finally done here. Now I just need to go pick everypony up. I suppose since I haven’t told Sweetie Belle who her teacher really is yet, I should probably go pick her up first.

Horn flashing with power, Twilight teleported away.