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// The Nature of Nightmares 
// Story: Pony-Losophy 
// by Newenglandee 
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"I hope you weren't...taken in by what Chrysalis had to say."

Luna sat with Twilight in her private office, Princess Luna's hooves upon the desk separating the two as she shook her head back and forth, her mane flopping about a bit. The starry skies within seemed to dim at the very mention of the name "Chrysalis" as Twilight bit her lip. She wanted to be respectful to Princess Luna, yet at the same time, she recognized Luna had a point.

"It's still rather hard for me to not take at least some of what she said seriously. Especially in regards to the idea that her Changelings aren't at an equal starting line when it comes to ponies."

"But do you think all ponies are on an equal starting line? Under the law, yes. In spirit, yes. In practice?" Princess Luna wished to know, holding one hoof up, shaking her head back and forth as Twilight took out her notepad. "I know you don't wish to hear this, but the problem is that some fillies will be born with irresponsible parents, or poor parents. Some will have rich upbringings or awful ones. Some will have to contend with siblings that are abusive and cruel whilst others won't. There's very rarely ever a complete, total equal starting line. The law exists to create a general overall advantage given fairly to everyone so the attempt is made, but the rest simply has to come from individuals. People have to work to get over their inner demons, or reach out to friends and other family when they fall short."

"But you can make more efforts to make sure everyone is entering society on an even keel, can't you?" Twilight wanted to know, a bit confused by this as Luna nodded in agreement.

"Oh, without a doubt. But we can only regulate morality. Our laws can't fully legislate it. We can help remind good people to be good and to not stray towards evil, but they're primarily just that. Reminders. We can only lead our little ponies to water. We cannot make you drink. Speaking of...would you like one?" Luna asked, her horn glowing faintly as a large jug of cider floated over to them, Luna pouring some of its contents into a crystal glass on the desk, Twilight shaking her head. "I must say, my highest of compliments to Applejack's family. This cider's positively divine." 

Twilight hesitated anew before speaking up. "Princess Luna, do you believe Chrysalis isn't truly interested in fair play, that she just wants advantages for her species that we ponies don't have? Is that why you're dismissive of her sincerity towards her people?" 

"Oh, without a doubt. The truism Chrysalis has about herself that she's at all noble is absolutely asinine." Luna said with a dark frown over her normally calm features. "Her entire motivating factor boils down to guile and deceit in the name of farming others for food. That is petty and cruel, not noble. Or, I've no doubt that when she wants to, she is regal." Luna went on, waving a dismissive hoof in the air, snorting at the mere mention of the word "regal". "She likes to act as though she possesses great moral character of a kind. But that's because she knows this is what great mares have. Let me make this clear, Twilight." 

Twilight leaned in at Luna's urging, the Lunar Diarch's voice cold and firm as she spoke. "Chrysalis would tear off the head of a newborn baby and eat it like an apple while its mother watched if it would somehow prove she was better than us."  

"...oh my." Twilight finally murmured as Luna leaned back in her chair and steepled her hooves, sighing a bit. "You must think she's pure evil."

"I've had pure evil using my body as its temple. Hijacking me for its own disgusting gain. I'm something of a voice of experience on evil and what it thinks like." Luna admitted, her tone becoming more thoughtful and almost sad.  She sighed, and the Princess hung her head. "Even to this day I don't know for sure how Evil was made. I don't know exactly where Night Mare Moon came from, but I've an idea. A good idea, a pretty strong belief, as it were." The Princess admitted. "The Problem of Evil's like an arithmetic sum. There might be a few different ways to solve it, but there's almost always one answer to most sums, and all the other answers are wrong. Even when the other answers are partially right, they're still wrong.

Some cultures, like the Dragons, subscribe to a sort of rival idea on Good and Evil than I and my sister have, Twilight. The idea that the wiser you become, the less you want to call anything good or bad at all. That everything is good in one way and bad in another. You might call a cancer bad because it will kill a pony, but you might just as well call a successful surgeon bad because they kill a cancer. It all depends on your point of view, that's what the dragons believe. It's a view developed by the draconic philosopher Paanthurax. And he thought this way because he viewed the entire universe around him as being part of the fabric of morality. He would look upon a diseased person in a bed or a slum and he would tell others "If only you could see things from the Truest perspective, you would understand that this is how it should be. All things are in there place". In essence, that, to him, would too be God, as it were." Luna admitted with a nod. "It would be Harmony. But...I do not believe this."

"I don't think you would, considering what you went through with Night Mare Moon." Twilight agreed. "I've seen the power of the Elements. Whatever made the world, be it the Elements or something else, I think it's like...an artist." She reasoned. "An artist can be seen in the art they do. They can put a lot of themselves into it. You can glean much from what they've drawn or crafted, but its not the same thing as saying he or she is completely equal to what they do."

"Indeed!" Luna intoned with a sage nod of her head. "And when it comes to Evil, our world is like a body. It was fine, and then it got sick at one point. It went wrong. And evil is that wrongness. I imagine its because of the dual nature of potential." Luna spread her arms wide, gesturing at the office around them, finally settling on a globe of Equus nearby, turning it slowly. "Anything that can be very good can turn very, very evil. A, say, rabbit that goes bad can bite you. But it also won't be much help to you on a farm. But a bull can help you plow the land and tend to it, and if it went wrong, it can trample you, gore you, crush you, do far much worse than a rabbit."

"So what was Night Mare Moon? Where do you think it came from?" Twilight asked, eagerly writing all this down as Luna flinched a bit as memory flashed across her eyes.

"I believe it was manifested, in a sense, by the Elements of Harmony. My sister and I shared the responsibility of using them and they put a tiny portion of kinship with them into both of us. But over time, my petty jealousy and envy of what my sister had led the seed I'd had put in me turn from something that could blossom into a beautiful flower into a disgusting weed. Evil is a weed, Twilight. Wickedness is pursuit of something you see as good but in the wrong way. Badness is good spoiled. It can't exist without good, though good can and does exist without it. After all, look at a shadow."

Luna moved the globe slightly, the light from the window behind her shifting the shadow it cast as she tapped the top. "That shadow wouldn't exist if not for the light source. The light by itself doesn't cast a shadow. Goodness doesn't inherently breed evil."

"But wouldn't there not even be a shadow if it didn't have some object leeching off of it? If there wasn't any globe there, there'd be no shadow."

"But light surrounds us always, Twilight. Even if we cannot always see it." Luna said, her horn glowing softly as the room began to shift and shape, an illusionary spell rising up around them as the night sky was laid bear, stars glittering beautifully as Luna spread her arms wide. "Even in the absolute dark of night, you need only look above, for no matter how a cloud make try to obscure it, there's nothing! NOTHING but light all around us all!" She proclaimed, the moon illuminating her beautifully as she let out a happy laugh, and then the visage faded, Luna plopping down in her chair. "And so the fight against evil becomes clear. We're in enemy-occupied territory, Twilight. We must always be vigilant until the day it's no longer a part of our world."

"So we'll never be cured unless always recovering? That's kind of...depressing." Twilight admitted.

"One day you do recover." Luna said softly. "It will take many years. Perhaps even centuries for our people and our world to bring true peace to the land, and create a realm in which things like Night Mare Moon can never exist. But nothing in life that's worthwhile is easy." 

Twilight nodded, closing the notebook and smiling warmly at Princess Luna. "You've been very invaluable to my notes and research, Princess."

"My dear Twilight Sparkle, even I am still learning. In fact, the only thing I know for absolute, 100% certainty is that there's still more to learn." 

"Then that means I've got more to learn too." Twilight agreed with a nod of her head. "And I think I'd like to talk to the dragons. Paanthurax sounds like a fascinating philosopher..."