Tea
Teatime for Two
A One-Shot
Luna began by taking a sip of the tea. The thin rim allowed for the tea to pour across her taste buds, giving her and her taste buds the best experience possible from the Jasmine. She swallowed, and it felt like swallowing pure joy, with a hint of wood. Possibly cherry. The sip completed, she sat the cup down on her saucer. A minor tremor shook the saucer ever so slightly, and a ‘ting’ sound rang out as the cup hit with just too much force. She looked across the table at the Alicorn who was, and was not, her beloved sister. Around them both, Canterlot had all the hustle and bustle one would expect from Equestria’s capital.
“I always wondered about these cups, you know. I had not before my sister… left, and afterward I didn’t want to try and discover their secret for fear of changing them irrevocably.” Celestia took a sip, following her example. Setting her own cup down, she closed her eyes, enjoying the flavour. She too swallowed, and replied without opening her eyes.
“Perfectly understandable. Had I been gone for as long as she, I would be grasping for any familiarity. Even a new flavour in the tea would unnerve me greatly. I know Luna was surprised when I revealed how I had kept all her possessions in magnificent condition, considering her absence.” Luna considered this for a moment, and grinned.
“Even her Abacus?” Celestia, eyes still closed, returned the grin.
“Especially her abacus. She seemed especially overjoyed at its return.” Her eyes opened, and she looked at the Luna that was not Luna. “I wonder, have you kept that among the ages? I would imagine that you have replaced it with a more convenient device by now.”
“Sadly, yes. I have kept it, however, within a glass case in my tower. Still, the difference engine has been a wonderful replacement thus far.” Celestia cocked her head. In the distance, far, far away, a pony screamed, before being cut off suddenly. Her ear twitched towards the sound, but otherwise let it pass without comment.
“Difference engine? You are still using that device?” Luna nodded, taking another sip of her tea. She set the cup down without the offending noise this time.
“ As does most of Canterlot, in recent times. Many keep their Abacuses for minor calculations, of course. Primarily taxes.” Celestia’s eyebrow rose.
“Taxes? Hm. We shall come back to that after this. But back to the subject at hand, your Equestria has not developed the calculator?”
“We have not. Enlighten me, please.” Celestia shifted to reach her saddlebags, which had not been there until she needed them. After flipping them open and digging through, she pulled out a small plastic rectangle with rubber buttons and a Plexiglas screen.
“A Calculator.” She stated, passing the device in question to Luna, who took it in her hooves. “Simply press the buttons to input the desired numbers, and press that button there to get the result.” Luna nodded, already tapping out an equation to test it. Satisfied, she passed it back.
“Interesting. A smaller version of the difference engine, I assume?”
“Correct. Harnessing electricity, as do many devices. Take the streetlights, for instance.” She pointed at the nearest one, which was simply on the other side of the café’s fence. It was completely possible it had been there the whole time, but it hadn’t been worth mentioning until now.
“Wires run beneath the streets, and these are all hooked into a central power grid. The electricity heats up the filament inside the light bulb, which glows bright enough to illuminate the street during the night.”
“Replacing the gas pipes, of course.”
“Of course. They had a nasty habit of exploding.”
“I imagine so. May we return to the tea?”
“Ah, yes. The reason the teacups are so distinctive is because they are of Neighponese design, from the Yi Xing province. The clay there, when used in teacups such as these, is extremely porous. Every cup of tea poured in these remains, adding flavour to every cup afterward. If used for any other flavour of tea, besides the first, it changes the flavour, often unpleasantly.”
“And I did not know that you enjoyed Jasmine tea the most.”
“Correct. Or perhaps not; I am not my counterpart. She could have entirely different tastes than I.”
“I shall have to ask next time I see her, then.” They both let out a small chuckle at that. There was another tremor, and the liquid inside the cups sloshed ever so slightly. Celestia steadied it with her hoof, with an expression of concern across her muzzle.
“Those appear to be becoming more severe.”
“They do.” Replied Luna, completely unconcerned.
“Should we not be worried about that?”
“No, for there is nothing to be concerned about.” Celestia spared a glance behind her, where several very concerned ponies were running around, panicking.
“Do you mind elaborating? If nothing else, I worry about these ponies.”
“Of course.” Luna took another sip of her tea, before shifting in her chair slightly, to get more comfortable. “We, by which I mean you and I, are currently residing in a pocket universe. The means by which I managed this are incredibly complicated, having been somewhat adapted from a dreamwalking spell, and the magical drain is taxing. Hence why neither you nor I have used our magic thus far. This also means that we cannot maintain this for very long, and it will take almost a full day to ‘recharge’ as it were.”
“I see. And the fact that it seems to be gradually collapsing, and taking this version of Canterlot with it? Are these ponies nonexistant?”
“No no, of course not. They are as real as you or I, or any pony back in our respective universes.”
“Then you do not worry about their death?”
“I do not. To create this pocket universe, I exploited a loophole in the fabric of reality, creating a new divergence point in both universes, and joining the ends together to create this one. They would not exist at all had I not done this.”
“Ah. And this divergence point?”
“Whether or not we did, or did not, show up to-day to have tea. The collision is too much of a strain on this universe, hence why it is collapsing, not unlike a dream.”
“And this will not, in any way, affect My Little Ponies? Or yours, for that matter?”
“Thankfully, no. When this universe collapses entirely, we will simply be deposited back from whence we came. Possibly even at the same time, although notably exhausted.” A blue Earth Pony ran down the street, screaming, and passing right past the two goddesses sitting at the table. Celestia watched her go, and took another sip of her tea.
“And they do not notice us?”
“We could hardly have this conversation were we persistently being pestered by panicking ponies, could we?”
“An invisibility glamour, then? And excellent alliteration.”
“Thank you. And no, not quite an invisibility glamour. It is more akin to… simply erecting a shield, but one’s mind tells them that what is within the shield is incredibly uninteresting, like one would regard something that was simply somepony else’s problem.”
“Clever.”
“I would hope so. My student came up with it.” There was a moment of relative silence as they both took a sip of their tea, and a building at the end of the street collapsed. They both held their hooves over the rim of their respective cups, to shield the contents from the dust.
“That reminds me, Luna. This Trixie, she is the Element of Magic in your universe?”
“She is, and I could hardly be more proud.”
“And the others, Raindrops, Ditzy Doo, Cheerilee-“
“I rather like that one, to be honest. She rather reminds me of you. She even sounds somewhat alike.”
“Really? I had not noticed. But the others, who were they… Ah yes, Lyra and Carrot Top. I took me a moment, as I cannot memorize the name of every single one of my subjects.”
“Nor I. They seem to simply fade into the background, do they not?”
“As much as I dislike saying it, yes, almost exactly like that. But, back to my main point, would you say they are better off in your universe?” Luna blinked, before putting a hoof to her chin.
“Better off? Hm. I wouldn’t… Hm. Really, what it seems like to me, is they have more time in the spotlight, that they have realized that what they do matters. That what they do with their lives has impact. Cheerilee, I feel, had already gotten a taste of that, being a teacher. But the others… They have a drive, of sorts, a motivation to them that their doppelgangers do not.”
“And the Elements from my universe, I dare even going so far as to call them my Elements, are lacking that drive in your universe?”
“Correct. They are all… simply there. More grounded. I believe that they do know each other, but are not as close as they are in yours. Perhaps the arrival of Twilight Sparkle was merely a catalyst?”
“As was Trixie? They did seem to bond together fairly quickly after her arrival in both universes.” Celestia took another sip. The light nearby sparked, the power getting cut off. Celestia could not, for the life of her, recall whether the light had or had not been on previously. It seemed to be roughly sundown, so it could’ve been either.
“Yet another divergence point, I believe. Perhaps there is another pair of universes where the opposite occurred.” Celestia’s eyebrow rose.
“Where, in mine, Trixie Lulamoon was the one to arrive and galvanize five ponies?”
“And in mine, Twilight Sparkle arrived in Ponyville and assembled her friends?” They both looked at each other and giggled.
“Well, Luna, let us hope that we do not also stumble across more of our doppelgangers. I can only imagine naming ourselves would become incredibly confusing!”
“Hehe… Indeed! What would my name be? Alpha Luna?”
“I cannot help feel it would be preferable to Beta Celestia!” The giggles grew into full chortles, as above them, Canterlot castle began to collapse in on itself. Gradually, they both composed themselves, still letting out the occasional giggle when they thought of something else funny. Luna was the first to truly calm herself, and she stood up from her chair. This caught Celestia by surprise.
“Luna, is something wrong? Why are you- oomph!” Luna had hugged her with shocking strength, almost out of nowhere. Celestia could hear Luna’s voice from where it was nuzzling her.
“I apologize, but… It is simply so good to hear your laugh again. I know you are not my Celestia, and that I have to do something about her. Something that I might regret, but she may force my hoof in doing so. But… Let me pretend. Just for now.”
“Of course. Take as long as you need.” Roughly ten feet away, the rest of the café began to collapse, seemingly into nothingness. Not black, not a blank white, but simply infinity. “Or at least, until other circumstances hurry us.” Luna nodded, losing herself in the feel of her sister’s fur, the scent of Vanilla, and felt the rest of the world beginning to dissolve around them.
She looked back up at Celestia. “Surely this is too soon? I have so much I wished to discuss with you, and I worked so hard, simply to result in this?” Celestia smiled a sad smile.
“I too, feel this has been far too short. There is so much we could talk about, so much we could share… Still, there is nothing preventing us from doing this again, is there?” Luna appeared to lose herself in her sister’s fur again. Her voice was only slightly muffled.
“Correct. And you do not mind my summons?”
“Of course not! I always have time for my little Lulu. No matter what universe she hails from. Now, if only the native one could understand that…” Luna nodded. Around them both, the café was uttering its death rattle, in the form of the precious Xi Ying cups and saucers and plates all rattling their way off the table and shattering on the ground, only to get sucked into the encroaching void surrounding them.
“Now, Lulu, if you’ll pardon me, you did bring me here in the middle of a meeting with the representative from the Gryphon empire…”
“Ah, well. Do not let me detain you. I understand completely.”
“Indeed. Thank you, Luna. And, honestly, feel free to do this again whenever you feel it necessary. I do not mind in the slightest.”
“Thank you… Sister. I wish the goodbye did not have to come so suddenly.”
“Likewise, Sister. Farewell, until we meet again.”
“Farewell, Celestia.” And with that, Celestia disappeared into the void surrounding Luna. It had been a fun little foray, but it had to end sometime. Still, if only it had lasted a little longer… Oh well. The spell was centered on Luna, but was quickly closing.
With one last sad smile, Luna popped out of existence, The pocket universe followed shortly afte-
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huh....
do more. seriously, have more discussions over tea.
The pocket universe idea is interesting, a little strange and somewhat roofless but interesting.
I did find it a bit confusing as to who was talking near the beginning but I got over that.
I think you should try more Lunaverse stories.
3046785
Thanks! I might fiddle with that, see if I can get it to work a little better. If the inspiration strikes, I might just try another story.
But technically the ponies from the pocket universe don´t merely die, but will be erased from the fabric of reality; isn´t a bit...unsettling?
Interesting story. The concept is nice, although I found the digression on calculators and technology rather jarring. The exact tech level of Equestria (either one) is vague and that is in my opinion a good thing - leaves more elbow room for ideas.
As mentioned, sometimes it's hard to know who's speaking.
Other than that, a fun read. I liked the little nods to how some ponies are "in the background" and such, and I recognize the elaboration on the specific china from a certain other story about princesses and tea...
this gets a cublins Stamp of Approval
3046980
Thank you for the comment! I agree, maybe the tech discussion was a bit unusual. I always got a bit more of a steampunk vibe from the Lunaverse, or at least an Industrial revolution-ish feel.
And yes, that story is where I got the idea, if not the execution, of the teacups. I do like those, and they fit Celestia so perfectly... Anyway, thank you. Like I mentioned, I'll fiddle with it a bit. Mind checking out my other stuff in the meantime?
3046884
But, on the other hand, they wouldn't have existed in the first place had Luna not created the pocket dimension. (It's meant to be a little bit of a moral grey area.)
3047463
Creating sapient beings with souls for a few hours, just to left them die and disappear is not in a grey area. It´s Discord´s level of godlike jerkiness.
It would have been a bit easier to set this conversation a thousand years in the future. That way, they could compare notes and see how similar their worlds have become.
3046884 3047463 3047517
Sadly, I have to agree with Raistlin. The fact that they're so nonchalant about the fact that other intelligent life is being snuffed out is rather jarring.
Now, if they were meeting in a mentally projected realm, like a shared daydream, and the ponies around them were imaginary, that would be very different.
nice idea, btu the characters are to dispassionate.
Yeah, this is really incompassionate and frankly cruel on the part of the alicorns. Sorry, but this didn't work at al for me.
Nicely done! Love the whole Pocket-verse bit. Certainly put things into perspective as to why everypony was running here and there.
Again Great Job.
Is it weid that my biggest complaint (aside from Random Capitals) has to do with calculators?
In the 1800s, calculators werewell known and "computer" was a job descriptions. Mechanical calculators (since I assume Celestia displayed a four-banger) have certainly been around since the time period the Lunaverse emulates
3052888
Eh, I probably have good reasons for all of the Random Capitals, if I was going to go find all of them. As for the calculator thing...
(Looks up the history of Calculators here.)
...Scheisse. Well, okay, we're both half-right. The most common calculator throughout most of the 1800s was hand-cranked, according to this, and for a species without hands, I'd think they try a couple other solutions first, eh? But yeah, for a victorian-era feel, It's not correct, at least not entirely. I'll have to add that to the list, then.
3048938 I gotta agree, here. Creating a pocket universe that would collapse and kill everyone inside of it.. for tea? Sorry, just really stretches things for me.
3048938>>3249044>>3047570
Bleh.
I hadn't even thought about that when I wrote this; If I had thought it would be this big a deal, I would've written it differently from the get-go. As I've stated before, I'll fiddle with it a bit when I've the time. Thanks for the criticism all the same.
I like it. I haven't read
muchany Lunaverse before now, but I think I might like it. As for the whole Pocket Universe thing, I think that the dream metaphor works well. When you wake up, does it not "destroy" the world of your dream? I can understand that. Also, are you a Doctor Who fan? Because you described a perception filter exactly as it was in Doctor Who (everypony just ignores it because their subconscious says it's boring), and that's a little eerie if not a Who reference.3513363
Kinda Dr. Who, kinda Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. Of course, when you consider that Douglas Adams wrote a fair few Dr. Who episodes...
3513500
blog.ancientlasers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Mind-Blown.jpg
Holy shit. Did he seriously? My world has just been completely redefined. I need a moment to cope with this.
¡Creating universe with all of those ponies, gryphons, dragons, diamonddogs, et cetera just to die a slow painful deaths is just terrible! The only redeeming parts of the story are the references to Inception, Doctor Whooves, and The Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy. You and Dave “Progenocide Antiscience” Polsky have much in common.
3572789
I... beg your pardon? I'm not sure I get the joke, if this is one, and if it is it's not a particularly funny one. For one, yes, I agree that the whole alternate universe thing isn't entirely ethical, but that doesn't mean I support that sort of thing. Second, I'm not sure who this Dave Polsky chap is. A google search tells me he wrote a couple MLP episodes, but I'm not sure where you're coming from by insulting both of us. I'm sorry, but if this is a joke, it's gone the way of the clouds: right over my head.
3574663
It is not a joke. I have encountered abusive parents who feel that it is okay to abuse their children because they created them. In your story we have an unstable pocketuniverse full of thinking feeling beings disintegrate, causing those in it to suffer and die, but it is okay because the alicorns created them.
I never said that you did personally, but it does paint the alicorns as tyrannical monsters with hearts of ice, unworthy of ruling Equestria. Because they control the Celestial Bodies, we are stuck trying to satisfy their whims.
I thought it would be obvious:
Dave Polsky wrote the old worst episode of MLP:FIM S01E15 "Feeling Pinkie Keen". The moral of the episode is that we should not try to understand our world. It is very antiscience. Then he topped himself by writing the new worst episode of MLP:FIM:
He wrote S03E03 “Too Many Pinkies”. Pinkamena Diane Pie thoughtlessly recreates a large number of thinking feeling duplicates. These duplicates tried to reason and exhibited the following emotions:
* Joy
* Depression
* Anxiety
* Boredom
The solution of Twilight Sparkle to dealing with the duplicates is genocide. Setting that aside, the test she uses to choose the Pinkamena Diane Pie to spare, is not designed to choose the original Pinkamena Diane Pie, but the most mellow Pinkamena Diane Pie:
The duplicates were only a few hours old. They had very few memories. Asking a few questions about shared events would have rapidly found the original Pinkamena Diane Pie. Instead, Twilight Sparkle makes the Pinkies watch paint dry. She murders all of the Pinkies except the least fidgety one. She treated this as an opportunity to trade in her old friend for a new and improved less annoying version. Twilight Sparkle does not care that she might murder her old friend.
The episode also shows casual animal cruelty when Twilight Sparkle turns a bird and a frog into oranges.
It is not a joke. If you ever have to interact with children abused by parents who consider them property because they made their children, you will understand.
3577249
You might be reading a little too far into this, man. It's fanfiction of fanfiction based on colorful magic marshmellow ponies. It certainly seems like the author didn't intentionally put the message you're seeing here, judging from their comments and blog. And especially bringing up a topic like child abuse and comparing that atrocity to a fanfic goes too far over a line.
It's a short but interesting story.