Option Three

by Mirta

Chapter 10 - Princess Luna

His dream was different this time. They were in the same space, with a mat and a glass wall separating him and Luna from the real dream. Anonymous was sitting right by the wall, hugging his knees and watching the meeting. The mood in the meeting room was jubilant and the CEO was pleased to announce record profit. Anonymous' dream version in the meeting room, whose nameplate was actually his now, was the only one who wasn't happy.

“They said I should be proud of myself because they made a lot of money.”

Luna looked to the side, at Anonymous.

“They didn't care that I hadn't had enough time to do my job properly because they fired so many developers.”

He was resting his chin on his knee, still watching the meeting in front of them.

“I told them that our new products wouldn't be ready in time.”

His tone was dull and monotone, like he had already given up.

“They told me I lacked ambition and should come up with better ways to utilize my resources.

He lifted his chin off his knee and turned his head to look Luna in the eyes.

“I even gave them examples of how I didn't have time, but of course they neither understood or cared.”

There was a look of sadness on his face and a tinge of hopelessness in his voice.

“I should've understood that the only thing that matters is the impression you give and not how good a job you actually do.”

Luna spread a wing and draped it around his shoulders as he let out a sigh and let his head fall so his forehead hit his knee with a faint dunk.

“It is not wrong to take pride in your work and do it properly.”

She felt his muscles twitch slightly as her wing touched him.

“If only my superiors had thought so too.”

Luna was not sure when she transitioned from being a dream warden to being a dreamer. She remembered practicing a duet with her sister's dream self and helping Pinkie Pie defeat the evil giant monster muffin, but she did not remember going to sleep herself. She felt like it was soon after she had directed the alien's dreams away from his past, but she only became aware of it just before she woke up.

The way the sunlight managed to peek through her room's thick curtains told her that it was afternoon. It was early for her to wake, but she did not feel tired so she rose from bed and drew back the curtains. The sky was mottled with gray clouds and the tiling on her balcony was still damp. With an uncharacteristic spring in her step, she turned around and headed to the bathroom.

Luna was sitting in the dining room, having breakfast, when Twilight wandered in.

“Princess Luna? Thank goodness you're awake.”

Her voice was unsteady and her moves twitchy as she approached.

“Twilight. Come, have something to eat.”

Luna gestured at the foodstuffs on the table in front of her, hoping that having something to eat would make it easier for Twilight to talk. She waited until Twilight had planted her flank on the seat opposite of her.

“Was there something you wanted to tell me?”

She watched her squirm in place for a moment, and for some reason felt as if she was interrogating her.

“Oh, I just can't decide what to do.”

Twilight held her head between her forehooves, resting her elbows on the table.

“At first Princess Celestia started doubting herself and then I didn't know what to do. Then I ran into the device that brought Anonymous here and decided to go talk to him. We talked for a bit but then it turned out that the device contains a piece of somepony's horn!”

She let let her head fall onto the table with a bonk.

“Then he said something about how he'd come across it but then he just went quiet and started drawing something and now he just says he needs some time to think. I feel like he's hiding something, but I'm not sure what to do about that – if he doesn't want to talk, what am I supposed to do?”

“Well.”

Luna paused for a while, trying to absorb what she'd been told while simultaneously trying to think of what her sister would do. She wished to question the alien about how he'd acquired a piece of an unicorn's horn and how he'd made it work despite possessing no magic of his own, but knew that Twilight would've told her already if she knew something about it.

“Why don't you just wait for a while?”

“Wait? But I can't sit around doing nothing when there's so much do! I still need to find out why my translation spell doesn't work like it's supposed to, research ways to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future and-”

“Twilight.”

Luna closed her eyes momentarily before looking at her distraught companion.

“I understand your frustration, but sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing. If he needs time to think, then you should give him some. Try to place yourself in his situation: trapped in an unknown world and at the mercy of aliens.”

“I...”

Twilight fell silent for a moment, her ears pressing against her skull.

“I hadn't thought of that.”

Her voice softened and her speech slowed. She stared at a half-eaten bagel that was on the table between the two ponies.

“When I've talked to him he's always seemed so... quick-witted and headstrong that I just thought he was fine with it.”

She looked up at Luna, her eyes wide.

“He is lost and alone, Twilight. He needs a friend, more than anything else.”

The door in front of her swung open before she had time to knock. Celestia and her assistant, the latter with some scrolls, were inside.

“Oh. I didn't know you were awake.”

A smile spread onto Celestia's face and there was warmth in her voice, but Luna sensed some disquiet within her. The slightest pause between recognition and reaction was enough for her to tell – though she was certain that nopony apart her would've noticed that.

“I was hoping you would have some time. I believe there is something you should know.”

“Time for you? Always.”

Celestia stepped to the side to let Luna in while glancing at her assistant and nodding. Luna let the unicorn pass before trotting into the room past her sister.

“It's about him, isn't it?”

She spoke as soon as she'd shut the door. The warmth was gone from her voice, replaced by tiredness. The sudden shift surprised Luna, making her turn in place to face her sister. Celestia had let her head fall so her back and neck formed a straight line and her eyes were downcast.

“Have faith, sister. I bring no ill tidings.”

Luna's shoes clopped on the bare stone floor as she approached the only pony who would never leave her. She softly prodded her sister's cheek with the top of her snout.

“It's not him I'm worried about.”

Celestia kicked the floor with a hoof, causing Luna to twitch at the unexpected sound, and was suddenly standing tall and proud and full of determination. She turned to look at Luna, the sorrow in her eyes forming a stark contrast with the rest of her.

“Have you ever seen a pony get driven to insanity when their dearest goes missing? Have you seen the sunken eyes of someone who has been searching for a month? The messy coat and protruding ribs of someone who has been looking for a year? The pure despair after a decade?”

She shook her head.

“I cannot condemn anyone to such a fate.”

Her eyes closed and her voice fell to but a whisper.

“Not after I had to live through it myself.”

Luna looked at her sister with her mouth slightly agape, then curled her forehooves around her neck and pulled her into a hug.

“For the first twenty years I hoped that it was only the Nightmare sealed on the Moon and that you were elsewhere, lost and forgotten.”

She felt her sister's forelegs on her own back and was squeezed tight against her.

“Shush now, my sunshine. I am here for you. Shush now, little sunshine. The night has come again.”

The corners of her eyes felt damp as she recited lines of the poem.

“Shush now, my sunshine. Cast away your sorrows. Shush now, little sunshine. It is time to sleep.”

Whether the poem had the intended effect of consoling Celestia or not was something she couldn't see, but either that or the embrace worked. She felt the forelegs on her back loosen their grip somewhat and was no longer locked in a desperate grasp of someone afraid of losing her, but rather in a soft hug with someone who was her only lasting friend in the eternity ahead. The tears were long gone when they finally let go of each other.

“So why did you come here, sister?”

Luna was sitting on next to her sister on the bed, both of them looking at Canterlot's rooftops through the window.

“The alien believes he can mend the device of his. He has made a list of replacement parts he needs.”

She had originally intended to tell about last night and what she'd found out during the time she'd spent with Anonymous in Canterlot, but she felt like her sister was not ready to find out about his homesickness and the other reasons he felt he needed to return for.

“That, and Twilight found out that the heart of said device is a shard of an unicorn's horn.”

The bed beneath her shifted as her sister leaned backwards in surprise.

“A shard of a... but how? How has he got it?”

“He refused to talk about it, saying he needed some time to think.”

A heavy silence filled the room for long while. Luna felt Celestia staring at the side of her head.

“You cannot bridge the void between worlds without an anchor... He got here because the shard came home, but how did it get there? Is there some other connection between our worlds?”

Luna did not answer, letting the silence return for another while.

She was researching multiverse theory in the castle library when Twilight found her.

“Princess Luna? Anonymous asked for you, I think he wants all of us to go there.”

She looked up from the book and at her, then slammed the book shut and rose on her hooves.

“That is unusual. I don't think he's asked for anything before.”

Twilight let out a soft giggle for some reason.

“I chatted with him a little and – well, you'll see.”

She turned around and waved her hoof as a sign to follow. Luna thought it was weird of her, but went after her regardless.

The alien was sitting on his bed, resting his chin on his palm with his elbow on his knee, when Luna and Twilight came into the room. He glanced at the ponies, let out a drawn-out breath and stood up.

“Hi there. I have been thinking and...”

His hands fiddled with the hem of his shirt and his pockets like he wasn't sure where to put them.

“What I said about the frequency crystal was not the complete truth. I had my doubts about it and tried looking into it but when I asked around all I got were vague responses discouraging me from looking further. Then I tried looking on the internet – a nigh-infinite database of digital information – but soon ran into sketchy sites so I stopped because I was afraid of being put on some watchlist.”

“Watchlist? But that's not what...”

Twilight tapered off as Anonymous lifted up one hand with its palm facing towards her. Luna didn't remember seeing the gesture before, but the result seemed to please the alien.

“I am sorry for misleading you, Twilight Sparkle. I was afraid of what you may do to me if told the truth. The item was sold as an occult curiosity, a component for black magic. Back home nobody cared about that because everyone but a few weirdos knew that magic did not exist but Celestia gave me the impression that you are not very fond of such things.”

He looked away as Twilight drew a breath and looked like she wanted to say something. But she never did, only holding the breath for a while with her mouth open before letting it out again.

“Neither of us, or my sister, would have done anything to you. We understand you come from a different world, and have seen more than enough actual black magic to know you bear none.”

It fell to Luna to keep the conversation going.

“But not all ponies are as versed in the subject as we are, so it would be wise to not spread the information too much.”

Comments

[Kosmosu]

I am unsure of what to make of this chapter. The last bit with anon has been extremity lost on whats going on. I cant help but feel as if there is quite a bit of context missing in this chapter.