Luna refilled her coffee mug. Again.
“…Are you sure this is safe, Princess?” I wondered. The mug was nearly as big as my head. And it seems that before it started its career in coffee, it actually was a flower vase. Now that Luna was using it to consume coffee in quantities sufficient to drown small rodents, hardly anypony would suspect, but I could tell.
It was a crazy day in a crazy week, and my head was still swimming from everything.
First, I find out that the reason the whole city is under shield is not wedding security, but some “threat,” and Shining Armor couldn’t even come visit and personally invite me to his wedding, because he has to constantly renew the spell.
Then, he tells me that “Mi Amore Cadenza” is actually Cadance’s official real name. Which would be best news ever, if she actually recognized me. Which she didn’t. I’m still not sure what to think about that.
And then he tells me, that Luna didn’t sleep for three days straight, alternating between roaming the countryside and sitting by a telescope for the entire night waiting for the supposed enemy to show up on the horizon. It got so bad, that on Celestia’s orders, Shining Armor personally disabled her alarm clock when they finally talked her into taking a short nap. Which only lasted until she noticed that everypony else is leaving the dream realms, and woke herself through sheer force of will, planning to resume her patrol “shortly.”
I figured I had to rearrange my schedule and talk to Luna before I do anything else. The girls know what to do, they’ll manage without me for a few hours, but if this keeps up, Luna might not be conscious enough to answer my questions by the time the wedding’s done. Finding Luna caffeinated to the point of visibly twitching definitely did nothing to convince me otherwise – it seemed that for her, the week has been just as crazy. In fact, just looking at her felt like a threat to my sanity.
“Tis not safe to sleep when an enemy is at the gates!” Luna insisted. “Did my sister not teach you that, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Not really,” I admitted.
Luna giggled and downed half the mug in one gigantic gulp. “I must apologize, I am most displeased with this turn of events. You are in no danger. At least, not while I am awake.”
“Too much caffeine can’t be good for anypony’s heart,” I tried again.
“Worry not of my heart, Twilight Sparkle, ’tis as strong as a thousand horses,” Luna brushed me off and took another sip.
“Is it really so bad, that you have to go without sleep?” I wondered.
“Surely you remember that day, when Cerberus abandoned his post at the gates of Tartarus for a short time?” Luna asked. “You were the one to guide him back, as I recall.”
I nodded. It wasn’t long enough ago to forget, and it was a very memorable week, full of chaos and yelling at ponies. And now that time travel gets brought up every other day, I keep looking back at it and wondering how could I be stupid enough to produce the loop in the first place.
“He left to track an escaped villain, a monstrous evil of great power. Alas, Cerberus is a guard dog, not a bloodhound,” Luna explained. I shivered. Was returning Cerberus home such a good idea? Did this evil pass through Ponyville, unseen?… But Luna ignored me and continued. “We have received word, dubious as it is, that this villain designs to attack Canterlot. Until we can ascertain that this shall not occur, the shield is to stay in place.” She bit off a piece of her moon pie and washed it down with more coffee. “And I shall resume my patrol as soon as I am appropriately awake and alert.”
“But when will you stop, Princess?!” I exclaimed.
“When I am sure the creature is back in Tartarus, or outside our borders, or dead,” Luna said sharply. “Or at least, when the festivities are over, for nothing would be more unseemly, than a monster attack interrupting a joyous occasion such as this.”
“What if we never know?” I asked.
“Protecting Equestria is my sworn duty,” Luna insisted, softly stomping her hoof. “And while my sister has acquired many additional duties during the time of my exile, I am determined to do my part, and I shall conduct this duty as I always did.”
I sighed. I had to back down. She certainly feels very strongly about it…
Luna looked me over, and I shivered under her gaze. “Is everything going well with the wedding, Twilight Sparkle?” I must look like a total mess… “Surely, you come to me seeking help, for I cannot imagine anything else would distract you.”
“Actually, I am, but it’s not about the wedding,” I admitted. I really need to get rid of at least some puzzles… “I wanted to ask you about a mare who says she is a personal student of yours. Her name is Trixie.”
“A most courteous and diligent lady of great promise,” Luna nodded. “I spent weeks scouring the dreams of unicorns, seeking one with as much drive and determination as yourself. So far, I am not disappointed in the slightest in my choice.”
What?! “…Are we talking about the same Trixie?” I wondered.
Luna hid a smile behind her coffee mug, “She was your classmate, I believe.”
I felt the hairs of my mane curl and tried to force them to stay in place with a burst of magic before she had a chance to notice. “So you really did send her to duel me for access to the castle library?”
“Yes,” Luna admitted readily, like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I hope you enjoyed that. Verily, she should have provided you with a challenge appropriate for your ability. I was most particular on that.”
I didn’t think I could straighten my hair without a brush anymore. I certainly could no longer hide it, and Luna wasn’t just tense from all that coffee. “Terribly alert” really was the more appropriate term.
She put her mug down on the table and looked at me seriously. “Celestia warned me you would not take it well, but I insisted. She never could refuse me… Indeed, I owe you an explanation.”
“Yes, please,” I mumbled, curling up in my chair in the closest approximation of a fetal position that I could manage while still staying sort of dignified.
“Did you consider the consequences of solving your mystery?” Luna asked. “The one that you visited the castle library to pursue?”
“What do you mean, ‘consequences?’” I sputtered. “I would know what to do about it, if anything!” First, Mary, with her cryptic premonitions, talking like she accidentally ended the world and we still didn’t notice, now Luna…
“Just as knowledge is power, so ignorance is a resource. Vital, no matter how unpleasant,” Luna stated. “What we do not know, may still turn out in our favor. What we do know is not in our favor, never will.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I had to wiggle them to make sure they’re still there. Sure enough, they were. “That’s like saying that what we don’t know doesn’t exist,” I stated my almost-question. Is this going to be something as embarrassing as friendship being real, again?
“It does,” Luna said, looking at me curiously. “And yet, as part of apeiron, it is not, yet, decided.”
“…Do you mean the primal unaligned matter?” I inquired. “But it’s just a mathematical fiction in Transmutation, it doesn’t actually exist, this has been conclusively debunked hundreds of years ago—” I started, and then noticed how Luna looked away. “—oh.” That was a long time after she was banished.
“No, that is not what I meant,” Luna said, after a slightly tense pause. “The idea of unaligned matter is based on the philosophical notion of the unlimited. The transformation of apeiron into other substances is the primal means of harmony.”
I had to remind myself, that Luna is the last surviving purely pre-classical magician. In her days, magic was seen as an art, rather than science. Even if I don’t understand it, there’s a system behind it, ideas based on feelings, rather than rules. I already know they aren’t any less valid than mine, Star Swirl’s legacy is a testament to that. That legacy is what classical and post-classical theories were made to explain.
“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” I finally admitted.
“Harmony guides things to occur the way they should, rather than just the way they can,” Luna started explaining. “In this, a miracle of harmony can transgress any law of magic, just because this is the way the world should be. The more we know, the less miracles remain in the world, for there are more laws a miracle must transgress to manifest.”
This… is a bizarre logic, completely unscientific, but it makes no less sense than Pinkie Sense, on an intuitive level. “Do miracles exist at all?” I wondered.
“Was finding your friendship anything less?” Luna smiled. “Miracles are not quite as uncommon as they might appear.”
Maybe… Maybe it was a miracle. That Sonic Rainboom in which we got our cutie marks wasn’t anything normal. A Sonic Rainboom is supposed to be impossible in the first place, and there is still considerable confusion about how it actually works, even now, when Rainbow can do it on cue. I knew friendship is magic on a whole different level, beyond anything I knew before… and that would be this level, wouldn’t it. I just got lost in the details of how to nurture it, and it distracted me from thinking of how it might affect reality.
But I still think she’s wrong. “Let’s assume you’re right. Doesn’t every discovery present new mysteries?” I countered. “I’ve just started on this one, I have yet to discover anything, and I’m already up to my ears in more mysteries!”
“That was Celestia’s argument as well,” Luna commented. “And it is true. But as you have deduced, this particular mystery lies at the root of countless phenomena. That you might expand the realm of knowledge concerns me not, and is nothing but a commendable result. But it is worrying, that this might happen too fast. When Equestria might be in need of a miracle on short notice, it is unwise to potentially impede it.”
I’m not sure I can accept this way of thinking.
I’m not sure I have to. She could order me to stop, but she didn’t. Something doesn’t add up. “…So instead of simply sending me a cease and desist decree, you choose to send your student to stop me? It’s like you’re treating it as some sort of game,” I accused.
“More like theater. Trial by harmony is a time-honored practice,” Luna assured me. Strange, it’s the first time I heard of something like that. “We are out of arguments, Celestia and I, and yet, we failed to convince each other. We cannot settle which is the right thing to do by argument alone. So we pass the question on to our champions, and through their friendly competition, what should happen, will happen.”
“Friendly?!” I exclaimed, sitting up. Is she serious?! Is this a dream? Did I fall asleep on the train and nopony remembered to wake me up? Did they make a mistake and wake up the wrong pony?! “Trixie hates my guts! She always did!”
Luna paused and looked deep into my eyes. “Trixie Lulamoon just wants to be your friend, Twilight Sparkle,” she said seriously. “More than anything else. She would never admit it to you, but I have seen it in her dreams.”
I choked for breath. “In what universe is it acceptable to conjure a spectral guardian to rip your ‘friend’ to pieces, along with hundreds of priceless books?!” I finally spat out.
“In her universe,” Luna countered, “the surest path to friendship is by forging it through demonstrating your best to each other in adversity. What exactly is wrong with that?”
“Like, everything?!” I insisted. “Friendship is the antithesis to enmity!”
“Friendship is many things. I met the pony who was my dearest friend this way,” Luna said without a hint of humor in her voice. “For Trixie, it is something that can only exist between ponies of matching ability. If she isn’t better than you in anything, she does not think herself deserving of your friendship.”
“That’s… crazy,” I said uncertainly. Didn’t I say that all of my friends are crazy, many times?
“Sanity is relative, Twilight Sparkle…” Luna commented. “But I apologize, I was not aware that this is a lesson you have yet to learn.”
I stopped myself just as I was about to protest again. I’m supposed to study friendship. Can I really dismiss the possibility? Who am I to say that I know everything about how friendship forms? “Not every friendship lesson has to be a result of personal experience,” I said. I want to try that “learning from other ponies’ mistakes” thing for a change.
“I am hardly wise enough in the ways of friendship to give you lectures,” Luna smiled. “If there ever will be any real theory, I have no doubt that you will be the one to write it.”
“It would certainly help me to know of your experiences,” I insisted. “Just how did this friendship start?”
“With a challenge to a duel,” Luna said. “Which, to my shame, she won, even though she could never come close to me in raw power. I have learned a great many things from Platinum. I am sure Trixie will provide you with just as much learning experience,” she smiled with thinly veiled smugness. “Consider this my contribution to the future of some of Equestria’s greatest ponies.”
I felt myself redden at the sudden compliment, but at the same time I was thinking. Platinum? Princess Platinum? The journal describes the first meeting between Luna and Platinum very differently. It says that Luna got offended at Platinum, and humiliated her until she apologized. If that’s called a duel, it’s a very unusual one, and it’s definitely not one Platinum can be said to have won… Maybe I should talk to her about it?
“I must apologize, as much as your company pleases me,” Luna said, standing up. “Duty calls. And alas, I am out of coffee.”
She certainly was.