//------------------------------//
// The Miracle 
// Story: Broken Symmetry 
// by Trick Question 
//------------------------------//

There's a ringing in my ears, when I shouldn't have ears. On a primal level, I know I should be dead. Yet, somehow I am not.

"Welcome back," calls a soft, if unfamiliar voice.

My vision takes a little longer to return, but that's no surprise: vision requires more physical energy for the brain to process than audition does. So if you're, oh, let's just say, being clubbed to death by your best friend, you're more likely to stop seeing things before you stop hearing them. Of course, this doesn't apply in my case, because a single blow was all it took. But the same fact holds true in reverse.

I struggle to move. I find that I'm in yet another hospital bed, and my foreleg is in traction again. This makes for a total of five knockouts in half a week, which, though very impressive, is not something I've ever wanted the bragging rights to.

My bandaged forehead throbs painfully, but it's my heart that hurts the most. I squint as my vision slowly returns, and I see a distinctive golden aura everywhere at once as my glasses are levitated onto my face by somepony. My sight is still bleary, but it's obvious that the pony beside me is none other than Princess Celestia.

As a talented mage, I've met Princess Celestia several times before. It was always in a formal setting, and she always exuded this kind of otherworldly peace. She's smiling at me now, very sweetly, her pastel-hued magical mantle billowing through her mane and tail.

All the other times I'd met her, I was star-struck. But not this time. Her flowing grandeur and gentle demeanor are irritating, and they feel pompous. This pony taught Twilight to be a princess, Twilight chose to end my life, and now here she sits with a soft smile on her pretty little face.

I want somepony to blame, and I won't allow it to be Twilight. So it's either Celestia or me, and I can't handle me at the moment.

"Meperidine," I demand, and she hoofs me the squeezer, which I gratefully tap.

"You've been in hospitals a lot recently, from what I hear," says Celestia. Her voice is soft and soothing, which I want to find annoying, but I can't. "You deserve the relief, but please take care with your doses. It is surprisingly easy to become addicted."

"Too late," I say. "That squeeze wasn't for physical pain."

"I understand," says Celestia, with a small sigh. "Fortunately, there are other ways to alleviate psychological trauma, at least in the long term."

I snort. "I know a spell to do it, but I'd sooner die than cast it again." I say that actually hoping I get in trouble for knowing the proscribed spell. I feel small and dead inside, despite the drug euphoria now filling my core. I want to suffer. I'm not entirely sure I understand why.

Celestia's head gently bobs in response. "I want you to live, Moondancer. Still, I'm glad to hear you say that. I don't know how you learned Dividere Mentem. I don't believe in censoring inquiry without just cause, so that particular spell is illegal for some very important reasons. I'm sure you understand this, now. Later, preferably with your consent, I intend to wipe part of the formula from your memory. I have already done so for Twilight and myself."

"Yourself?" I ask, shocked. "You did something to keep yourself from casting a spell?"

I can hardly believe what I'm hearing, but I'm starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, underneath all that polished charm Princess Celestia might secretly be a real pony.

Maybe.

"Oh, yes," she says, and a wistful look crosses her muzzle. "I removed it from my mind a very, very long time ago, and at the time I also put up other barriers to ensure I would not relearn it. I probably should have destroyed it, but it's difficult to bring myself to ruin any brand of knowledge. Regardless, while it is true that our decisions are best ruled by adherence to facts and logic, it turns out that emotions are, in fact, a very important component of ethical decision-making."

"You also covered up time travel of the third form, didn't you?" I accuse. "And actually, I guess it turns out Twi and I don't know what that is after all. I suppose you'll tell me that information is forbidden for good reasons too?"

Celestia waves her head gently from side to side. "I'm afraid I lied to Twilight about that, because I feared the two of you were working on something very dangerous. I figured it might spook her into slowing down. In truth, there's no such thing as a third form of time travel, to the best of my knowledge," she says. "That idea was a distraction I slipped into textbooks written long ago to make it appear that there was a more powerful kind of time travel. It's the second form that is dangerous. Fortunately, that magic is very difficult to master because it requires communing with the Tree of Harmony. But the point of the ruse was my hope that ponies like Starlight Glimmer might give up on learning the second form, and try to pursue a dead-end spell instead."

"Clever," I say. "But disturbingly sneaky."

"I admit it was a questionable plan. I'll probably never know how well it actually worked, since those cases would be the ones we're spared from," she says. "However, I fear I must return to the matter at hoof: Twilight's actions."

"Her... oh, right. Eh. I don't know anymore," I say. "I can't really fault Twilight for what she did. Maybe if she hadn't had that emotion spell up, but even then I can't blame her decision."

It almost feels like I have the spell up now, I realize. I'm sure waterworks are on the horizon, but at the moment, everything just feels empty and numb.

"Twilight Sparkle speaks very highly of your intellect. I suspect you might have figured things out already?" says Celestia, intoning it as a question.

I nod my aching head. "It's pretty straightforward. Twilight and I discovered that if the chambers worked the way they seemed to work, we would have already produced a slew of universes where Equestria was doomed to some disastrous outcome," I explain. "Then she realized she had the opportunity to go back in time and rig it so that the experiments were actually time travel of the first form all along. So she kidnapped me and took me back through the failsafe chamber. When I woke up, she kicked me out of the chamber but stayed inside of it herself. Once she ended up at the start of this mess, she destroyed test chamber two, then cast magic into the chambers to make it appear like symmetry had been broken when it actually hadn't."

"You are correct. In doing so, Twilight saved countless otherwise-identical Equestrias by preventing their existence in the first place, which is a probabilistically preferable outcome. So all of the events took place here, in this Equestria," says Celestia.

"Yeah, that was the payoff. Then after several days of shenanigans, she met me when I came out of the chamber and tried to kill me. Then, thinking she'd succeeded, she dropped the emotion spell, felt guilty, and tried two or three times to undo her own plan by changing events—namely, my actions—without directly confronting herself. It makes perfect sense, in retrospect. Obviously, her attempts were in vain. I rebuffed her each time, because I didn't understand who she really was or what she was trying to do," I say. "But I'm surprised that when she still had that cursed spell up she didn't plan more effectively to keep me dead."

"She tried to. In order to ensure her success, Twilight also destroyed 'chamber zero' before she traveled with you through the failsafe chamber, which I believe Twilight mentioned was chamber three," adds Celestia. "Since she had already destroyed chamber two, and your body traveled through chamber one after she attacked you, there would be no way to return to the past again to save your life."

"But then... how in Equestria am I still alive?" I ask, dumbfounded. For a brief moment, the mystery is almost enough to numb the emotional pain.

Celestia smiles, but the smile quickly fades. "You know, I've known Twilight Sparkle for almost all of her life," she says, staring momentarily out the side window. "And I've personally lived through centuries, as you certainly know. In all that time, I don't believe I've ever seen a pony more distraught than Twilight was when she came to me yesterday, begging for her punishment. She needed to be restrained and sedated. Twice, actually. It was most fortunate I recognized the stripe was on the wrong side of her mane, although I did have another clue. If Twilight is feeling up to it, she can tell you about that one herself."

I sigh. "Well, I guess at least she feels bad about what needed to be done. But I don't know if she should. She made the logical decision," I say. I try to make it sound sarcastic, but it really isn't. I mean it, and it hurts.

"That's exactly what I told her," says Celestia, and I feel a sudden knot in my stomach.

"Wow. You really are kind of a bitch," I say, my already-sparse filter damaged by the emotional pain as much as the drugs. I immediately regret it, but then almost as immediately, I take back the regret.

Momentarily, Celestia looks shocked, and maybe even angry. But then that soft smile returns to her mouth, and she lets out a short laugh. "Yes, I... I suppose I've earned that one," she admits.

I don't really know what to say, so I just look away from the princess as tears begin to stream down my cheeks.

"However," she continues, "the logical choice is not always the same thing as the correct choice."

I wipe my eyes with a hoof and turn back to face her. "What? No, that's false. Killing me was the right choice. I'm worthless compared to an innumerable amount of Equestrias! Tartarus, I'm even worthless just compared to Twilight," I say, my voice catching in my throat.

"I most emphatically disagree, Moondancer," says Celestia, suddenly wearing a stern frown. "In Twilight's partitioned emotional state, she forgot the true lesson she learned from her second encounter with Starlight Glimmer. Yes, it may be true that she and her five friends were destined to save our world, and certain critical points in history are more important than others. But everything we do matters, my little pony. Every friendship is essential to the future of our world, and that is not an exaggeration, as I hope you will someday learn. In particular, your friendship with Twilight may—and very likely will—be equally important to the fate of Equestria. At least, it will, should you one day choose to continue it, after what she has done to you."

Celestia telekinetically hoofs me a box of tissues, and I start to dry my eyes. "No... I won't believe it. There's no way that I'm as important as Twilight is."

"But you are," says Celestia in contradiction, smiling gently down at me. "Just look at the mess a single avenue of your research made in the space of a week, and tell me that your actions don't have an impact on the future of Equestria."

I smile, despite myself. "Okay," is all I can say for the moment, and she patiently waits for me to dry my eyes again. My glasses keep getting in the way because I can't hold them up with magic—it hurts my forehead too much to try. "So, how am I alive, again? The suspense is murder. Um, pun not intentional."

"Ah, yes. Well, after I managed to get all of the information out of Twilight, I asked her to stop and think very carefully if there were any remaining options that could possibly save you," she says. "As it turns out, after taking your failsafe chamber back to the beginning, she ended up correcting for every detail except one."

"Which one was that?" I ask, still very curious even as I lie here drying my eyes with tissues.

"She neglected to dispose of your body after you sent it back in time. It was the one loose end she forgot to tie, probably because even in her broken emotional state she wouldn't allow the thought to cross her mind," says Celestia. "Once we realized a piece was missing, she unraveled the rest in short order, then set upon a second quest in the hope it could save your life. That hope was far from certain, but she clung heavily to it."

The gears in my head were turning more slowly than usual, but they still turned. "Twilight must have gone back in time again to cast something that would make it seem like I was dead... I guess somewhere between the time she knocked me on the head, and the time we discovered me. But in order to rescue my body, she would have needed to go back even further," I say. "And that's the problem: she had already used the failsafe, and destroyed the only chambers that could have taken her back that far. The Twilight with the emotion spell was inside chamber three the whole time all of this was going on, chamber one had my 'dead' body in it, and chambers zero and two were destroyed. There shouldn't have been any way for her to travel back a second time."

"Are you certain?" says Celestia, raising a brow inquisitively. Then she sits quietly as I try to decrypt the final piece of the mystery.

It finally hits me. "Oh my Stars. After Twilight inserted the IV bag into chamber zero, we never performed experiments in chambers zero and one at the same time, so... she could have alternated chambers and used them both as a combined failsafe—that's it!" I say, with a genuine laugh. "She took chamber one back to a time before chamber zero was destroyed, then waited ninety minutes and took chamber zero back the rest of the way! Twilight, you clever bucking mare," I say. "So she was in chamber zero when chamber one was being used, and chamber one when chamber zero was unavailable. As well as being Robo-Twi in chamber three the entire time, of course. That's awesome."





"I thought you'd appreciate that," says Celestia. "She went through an incredible amount of trouble to save you, Moondancer, and it has taken a substantial toll on her emotions. For lack of a better way to say it, Twilight Sparkle is a wreck right now. However, none of this excuses her trying to take your life."

I pause a moment. "Wait, she's not in trouble, is she?" I ask. "I used a forbidden spell on her! I'm at least as guilty—"

"Shh," soothes Celestia, gently tapping my muzzle with a shining golden shoe. "It's all right. While Twilight is not absolved from the responsibility of her actions, she has definitely suffered enough, and in the end, you did survive. Luna and I shall not attempt to punish her further. Besides, I also share some of the responsibility for Twilight's actions. I've been pushing her very hard lately out of concern for whether or not she is ready for these exact sorts of difficult situations. Instead, I should have been providing her the emotional support she needed to gain confidence in her own abilities."

I let out a deep sigh. "I'm really glad to hear you say that. Twi's been meaning to talk to you about the pressure, and I was ready to chew your ear off about it if she didn't," I say. "But, um... what would have happened to Twilight if I hadn't survived?"

Celestia takes in a deep breath. "I don't really know, and I'm glad I don't have to consider that case. Powerful mages like you and I, as well as our friends, tend to get into situations where standard moral imperatives don't always apply in a clean-cut manner. And there's certainly no legal precedent by which one could evaluate the relative importance of saving alternate universes. But the rule of law still applies, as much as it can," she says.

I just nod and listen to her as I blow my nose.

"Last year, Twilight annihilated several dozen semi-sapient clones of Pinkie Pie without even batting an eye," she adds, with a small sigh. "I agree it was the best solution from a utilitarian perspective, but morally speaking, where can one even begin to weigh these sorts of choices? I don't know the answer, but I never did have the heart to tell her one of them escaped her notice."

"Being a mage and having friends at the same time is more complicated than I'd originally hypothesized," I say.

Celestia gently nods in agreement. "All that aside, I want you to understand that you aren't obligated to forgive her, Moondancer, even though you are in truth the only pony who can. Not today, certainly, and not ever, should you choose."

"Well, my schedule's free at the moment, so... I guess today works best for me," I say with a sheepish smile. I barely notice a tension leaving Princess Celestia's muzzle, a subtlety I wouldn't have been able to pick up on before spending so much time with Twi. I can tell she's relieved, and I can understand why. I've already forgiven Twilight, but I'm sure she's hurting much more than I am.

Celestia stands and walks to the door, opening it a crack, and whispers something as she exits. I can hear somepony sniffling, and then, very slowly, Twilight Sparkle creeps into the room. Her head is bowed, her ears droop back, and she's crying drops onto the hospital floor.

As Twilight tilts her head up and looks at me, I'm actually frightened by the responsibility. In her eyes, I can see her waiting for a death blow, as though I have the power to kill her where she stands with a single word. And the scary thing? I probably do. But I also know I wouldn't let that happen in a trillion iterations.

"Muh-muh, M-moon, I, I..." she stutters and chokes.

I sigh. "Get over here you big dork," I say, with enough of a smile that she knows, and she runs to me.

I can't reach out to her because the forehoof on her side is in traction, but after she's close enough to bury her face in my lap and sob maniacally, I can at least pet her mane with the good one.

"I'M S-SO SORRY," she moans, though it's hard to hear with her face buried in the blanket on my belly.

"It's okay," I say, because it is. "I forgive you."

"I d-don't d-deserve it," she says. My horn isn't helping at the moment, so I share the tissue box with her by hoof.

"No, I think you do," I say. "You can't get rid of me that easy. I'm in this for the long haul."

"Why?" she asks, trying to mop the tears from her cheeks.

I fear saying the wrong thing, but I decide to follow Applejack's wisdom. "Because I love you," I tell her. "I can't stand to see you suffer like this. Also, it helps that that teacher of yours always knows just the right thing to say. Um, I definitely don't have that talent, so I really hope I'm not screwing this up right now."

She hugs me awkwardly. "You're not," she says. "And I was so wrong, I just—you're not less important to Equestria than I am, Moonie. You're just as important as I am, and to me, you're more important."

I wipe away a tear or two of my own. "Oddly enough, I think I'm starting to gravitate toward that theory myself," I admit.

"I, um, I might need to clean myself up for a while, and m-maybe cry some more. Then I can come back and we can talk," she says. "Oh Stars, I'm so happy you're okay."

I shrug a little, or at least do the best approximation I can with one foreleg unavailable. "I am too. To be honest, I'm still pretty shaken up, though. I might need some therapy," I say, in all seriousness.

"I'm sure I will," gasps Twilight between sobs.

"Well, maybe we can go together?" I offer, gently stroking her forelock. "I don't quite understand about the 'love' thing yet, but I think we can figure that out together too."

Twilight just smiles up at me and wipes her eyes. Celestia was right, she looks absolutely terrible. Yet somehow, that smile on her face is easily the most beautiful sight I've ever witnessed.

"This is off-topic, but did you find out who backed me?" I ask.

"Oh! Princess Celestia did," she says. "She funneled the bits through Manehattan to hide her tracks. We needed an accomplice in Manehattan we could trust, so I connected her with Rarity's close friend and associate Coco Pommel."

"But that was long before I first turned on the machine," I say.  "How did you go back even further?"

"I didn't have to. I had Rarity use a modified version of Star Swirl's spell which allowed her go back in time a few weeks and deliver a note to Princess Celestia where I told her I needed her to loan Coco Pommel an extravagant amount of Equestrian bonds for research purposes, which I promised to pay back," says Twilight. "Granted, that last part was a lie, but Celestia has the bits to spare, and it also gave her a clue that I was involved in time-based shenanigans."

"Hmm, creative. Wait—isn't Celestia sore about wasting millions of bits on my doomed project?" I ask.

"Not at all. She doesn't care about money. She cares about ponies," says Twilight, in a simple, matter-of-fact voice. Then she nods and hands me back the tissue box. "I'll be back in a little while, but in the meantime there's somepony else who needs to talk to you. Thank you so much, Moonie."

"No problem, Twi. And hay, if our friendship can survive attempted murder, I think we're pretty much doomed to be friends for life," I say. By some miracle, we both manage to giggle through the tears. Twilight walks out of the room, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief as my guard drops. Social interaction can burn through a lot of calories, especially when you really care about the outcome.

I assume my sister is next, or maybe Lemon Hearts or one of my other friends, even though I'm not really in the mood for more company. I'm taken entirely by surprise when Princess Luna enters the room.

"Three princesses in a row?" I ask. "That's got to be a record."

"You would seem to be a very important mare," says Princess Luna, with a wry smirk. "And to think, I was interested in befriending you prior to all of this recent madness. I must be an excellent judge of character; it would no doubt behoove me to become well-acquainted with a mare of your stature, Moondancer. Perhaps you are even a pony upon whose withers the fate of Equestria may someday burden."

"I don't know about that," I say. "I don't want to be a hero, especially not after all this."

"Alas. I regret to inform you that your response is precisely what a hero would say," she replies. "We rarely have much freedom in that, I fear."

I roll my eyes. "Gee, what chance does that give me?"

Luna smiles. Ironically enough, I find her personality much warmer than her sister, but I can finally sense the sisterhood between them. "And now I have you present as a captive audience, so you can no longer escape my introductions."

I chuckle. "Heh, thanks."

"Allow me to 'cut to the chase scene', as they say. You are a remarkably powerful mage, Moondancer, despite your young age," she says. "In our brief meeting from before, I believe you had informed me that you are new to the magic of friendship?"

I sniff dismissively at that. "Yes on being clueless with friendship, but I don't know about the 'powerful mage' bit. I enjoy magic, but I'm no Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Luna huffs. "Twilight Sparkle is still learning, just as all ponies do. You know, she has yet to fully understand that she has grown beyond the framework that my sister has laid for her," says Luna. "She continues to compare herself to Princess Celestia in an unrealistic fashion, as though her constant approval is still necessary. After all her lessons in friendship, Twilight still lacks confidence in who she is. Her mentorship of Starlight Glimmer will be a worthy challenge for her."

"She'll get there," I say. I don't really know, though. "She's going to mentor Starlight? Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"Moondancer. My point is that Twilight cares for you because you are your own pony. Your self-worth should not be yoked to her shadow, as hers remains tied to that of my sister."

"I know," I say. "This... thing we just went through finally opened my eyes to that. But like you said, I'm pretty new to friendship."

"Ah, yes! On that remark, I am reminded of the primary purpose of my visit. I shall put it in a straightforward manner. My sister gets to have a personal protege. Now, even Twilight Sparkle has a protege in Starlight Glimmer," she says. "I am, quite frankly, gripped by the bonds of avarice, and I intend to remedy this injustice forthwith."

"You mean..." I say, afraid to draw the conclusion prematurely.

"Moondancer, I would have you as my personal student," says Luna.

"I... I don't know what to say."

"Oh. You should say 'yes'," Luna informs me.

"Um, then, yes!" I say. "And you know, I could probably use this as an opportunity teach you a thing or two about quantum mechanics, if you like."

Luna grins. "Excellent! You know, every good mentoring relationship requires learning on both sides. This is something my sister is presently rediscovering," says Luna. "I believe that she and Twilight Sparkle will both grow a great deal from what has happened this day."

"I certainly hope so," I say, sniffling as I try not to cry happy tears. Today's been maudlin enough already.

"Now for the time being, I think it would be best for you to remain in Canterlot, but your friendship assignments will frequently require travel to Ponyville," she says. "The friendship that you share with Twilight Sparkle is of particular academic interest, and shall require further study, in depth."

Then Luna winks at me, and I blush like a firestorm.

"I think I can manage that," I say, and I dab my eyes again.

With that, Luna bids me goodbye and leaves me to my thoughts.

I won't allow myself to be unrealistic about my future. I know the path will be hard at times. Hopefully it'll never, ever be this hard again, but on occasion there will be fights, and misunderstandings, and mending of fences anew. Wherever my friendship with Twilight ends up taking me, I'll embrace it: the good and the bad together. I think she's—no; I think we are worth it.

After all, friendship is about sacrifice—on both sides of the equation.

I think I can live with that.