Open Source
It started as a little niggling in the back of Moondog’s mind. Nothing major, a bit like a song running through her head over and over. Annoying but not debilitating. Still, she wasn’t supposed to get things like that. Look into it? …Nah, not yet. It was still too small to look at properly. It’d either go away or grow and be easier to follow.
Two dreams and half an idea later, the niggling had grown. It was definitely magical, definitely pulling Moondog’s thoughts in a certain direction. It seemed a bit familiar, too, somehow. Why? Time for some sleuthing.
spell.trace();
The pressure in Moondog’s thoughts grew as she bounded through the dreamscape after the spell, and with every inkling she travelled, the spell grew more déjà vu-y. It definitely wasn’t harmful; not directly, anyway. It was more like a tracking spell. In fact, it almost felt like-
It was only once she was in Sandbar’s dream that Moondog realized she was following her own spell. And the only tracking spell of hers had been given to-
A spark lit up from nothing in front of Moondog. It blossomed outward into a vague pony shape with bark for a coat and leaves for feathers. It opened its warm, mismatched eyes and smiled. “Moondog,” said the Tree of Harmony, bowing. “I see the spell worked.”
“It did indeed, um… Tree.” Moondog bowed back. “We need a better name for you. Any name, really.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
Screw semi-mystical vague non-answers like that. “Either way, what do you need me for?” asked Moondog.
“I wish to meet the Pillars of Equestria, the ones responsible for my creation,” said the Tree, “yet my interpersonal skills and… navigational skills alike remain wanting. I believe you are the one best suited to assist me in this endeavor.”
Moondog twitched back. “Me? But I’m not much of a…” Her voice slowed and she narrowed her eyes, just a little. “Best suited, or least unsuited?”
The Tree didn’t hesitate. “The former. Although we have our differences in kind, I am almost certainly more alike to you than to any pony in Equestria and you have considerable experience with ponies’ minds. Though there are some shades of the latter, I am afraid.”
“Eh, could be worse.” Moondog flared her wings. “Could be all the latter.”
Helping the Tree of Harmony. After she’d already helped it before. Was this going to be a thing, being the person Equestria’s guardian spirit turned to for learning about friendship? Well, there were worse things to be. Twilight would probably explode if she were here. Maybe- No, no need to make this more complicated than it had to be. Something for the future, then. Tonight, on the other hoof…
“Alright. I’ll do my best, but…” Moondog’s grin was crooked and self-deprecating. “You know how I am with other people.” And being with two people rather than one wasn’t going to do her any favors.
“Better than I, and thank you.” The Tree inclined its head in a slight bow.
“Also, be patient with them, okay? Ponies can be a bit skittish around things that’re new to them. They’re probably going to freak when they see you.”
“I have a kid?” Flash Magnus asked in disbelief. “…Huh.” A long, long pause. “…Okay then. Yep.” He nodded awkwardly. “Kid.”
Moondog looked at Flash, then at the Tree. The Tree looked at Moondog, then at Flash. Flash looked at the Tree, then at Moondog, then at the Tree again. Moondog had to constantly fiddle with the fabric of the dream so the awkwardness didn’t congeal around them. See, this was why she dreaded crowds: at some point, everything would grind to a halt, and the awkwardness generated from the silence would be exponentially greater with each additional person. Two was bad, three was terrible, four would be… Sheesh. She considered saying something, anything, to break the silence, but since this was supposed to be between Flash and the Tree, what good would it do?
Well. Destroy the awkwardness, for one. And yet Moondog still couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Finally, the Tree cleared its throat. “Is… that all you have to say?” it asked quietly.
Flash rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I mean… okay. Um. Sorry I was a deadbeat dad and never around, I’ve kinda been trapped in another dimension for over a thousand years and I never imagined that my element would… make a tree. That’s sapient. Yyyyyyeah.” Pause. “Were you expecting this to go anywhere? ’Cause, sorry, I really don’t know what to do.” Flash glanced at Moondog. “Who’re you, again?”
“Um.” Moondog looked at the Tree again. “Moondog. Oneiric golem. Next in line after Princess Luna.”
“Ah. Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
--Error; TitleMismatchException e
noteToSelf("Make sure to never get called 'ma'am' again, ever");“And pleasure to meet you, too,” Flash said to the Tree. “But…” He cringed slightly and twitched, like he wanted to look away. “I don’t know a thing about parenting. Never intended to be one. I’ll always be married to the Guard, so I knew I’d never have time for a wife, let alone a wife and a foal, so… yeah. Can’t even remember much from my foalhood.”
“I- I assure you,” said the Tree, its voice strained, “I am quite capable of taking care of myself. I merely- I-”
“Harmotree here just wanted to say ‘hi’,” said Moondog. (“Harmotree?” asked the Tree, frowning.) “Get to know you a little better. You don’t need to be a dad dad. Just tell it about yourself.”
Flash tilted his head at Moondog, then looked at the Tree, who smiled a little and nodded. “Okay, phew,” he said. “Well, then.” He cleared his throat. “Flash Magnus, soldier of the Royal Guard, and…” He suddenly started grinning and his wings sprang open. “Holy crow, the weapons and armor of the future are incredible! I thought the Guard’s gold armor was ridiculous at first, but it’s actually just gilding, and it’s over a metal that’s even better than steel called titanium. It’s lighter and stronger and, stars above, it’s called titanium!” He shook his head. “Most of the enchantments that go into it weren’t even thought of a thousand years ago. Now, thinking that armor was once just plain metal is… whoof.”
“But you kept yours.” The Tree pointed at Flash’s own set of armor; apparently he was fond enough of it to dream himself in it.
“I mean, of course it’s been modernized,” said Flash. “The Guard wouldn’t let me keep it otherwise, and I couldn’t just throw the old gal away.” He rubbed his half-barding affectionately. “I’ll spare you the details and just say it’s never been better. Still isn’t as good as modern armor, but it’s not like there’s a war on or anything.”
Flash abruptly did a full-body twitch and clamped his wings tight to his sides. He coughed and looked away. “Ehm,” he said in a small voice. “Talking with… you about… war probably isn’t a… good idea, is it? Harmony and all.”
“Fret not,” said the Tree. “Violence is certainly never preferable, but I recognize that it is necessary at times. If cruelty is the only language with which a person speaks, you may be forced to respond in kind so they can understand you, especially if you are protecting others.” Its face darkened. “I am not unfamiliar with the concept.”
Moondog scooched a foot away. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.”
“Moondog, do not get on my bad side.” The Tree smirked as Moondog rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, um,” Flash said quickly, “speaking of not-war, the, the Guard is, it’s pretty impressive how much they’ve got the monsters on the borders under control now. A thousand years ago, whoof, get too far from the cities and you might as well just throw yourself to the wolves. Actually, I think throwing yourself to the wolves would be less dangerous, since…”
“These days are something else, aren’t they?” Mistmane said. In spite of her age, her laughter was light. “A tree I helped seed watching over the land, a golem watching over ponies’ minds.”
“Really, it’s Mom who watches over minds,” said Moondog. “I just help. I mean, I’ll be taking over soon, but not yet.”
“A humble golem, at that!” Mistmane laughed again. “Magic is a beautiful thing.”
“Speaking of beauty, want me to give you yours back?” Moondog asked. “Just for this dream.”
Mistmane waved a hoof at Moondog. “Well, heaven knows I don’t need it, but if you want to-”
dreamer.setAge(30);
“-do it, go right ahead,” said a much younger Mistmane. Hearing her steadier voice, she blinked and looked down at her hooves. “Hmm. That was fast.” She peered closely at one of her hooves and turned it over. “By gum was I knobbly,” she muttered.
“Not as knobbly as I am,” the Tree replied, grinning.
“You’re a tree, you’re supposed to be knobbly,” said Mistmane. “I was just old, with all the aches and pains that come with it.”
“Pain?” Worry flitted across the Tree’s face. “If you are in pain, perhaps I could- Maybe with Twilight’s help, we could- You restored Sable Spirit’s beauty, surely we could do the same for you.”
“That might’ve been tempting a thousand years ago, but now, they’ve got doctors for everything.” Mistmane paused and gazed into the distance. “Ev-ery-thing. There are entire fields dedicated to nothing but teeth. Meadowbrook went nuts over them. And the painkilling spells that even I had trouble casting? Well, now they come by the hundreds as pills in containers this big.” She held her hooves a few inches apart. “They don’t even need magic to work. No, being old now’s practically easier than being young way back then. Don’t waste your time trying to make me look purty. Thank you for the offer, though.”
Moondog and the Tree looked at each other. “Ponies, amIright?” Moondog said.
“Quite,” the Tree responded.
“You might understand it better if you were physical,” said Mistmane.
The Tree raised a hoof.
“If being physical was the main way you interacted with the world.”
The Tree slowly lowered the hoof.
“Beauty’s nice, don’t get me wrong,” said Mistmane. “I spend my days spreading it where I can. But that spell I used to restore Sable and the village took a lot out of me and it’s just too much cost for too little gain, assuming magic can give it back at all. Besides, I’ve had enough of besotted ponies throwing themselves at me.”
“I… I think I understand,” said the Tree. It pawed at the ground and flicked its ears, frowning.
Mistmane smiled and threw a leg across the Tree’s withers. “But I really am grateful,” she said. “Make no mistake. It’s just that there are better things for you to use your magic on. Like…” She frowned. “Like… Hmm.” She tapped her chin. “What do you do, exactly?”
“Well…”
“Of all the things that I have seen of this strange new world,” Somnambula mused, “you two are probably the ones that shock me the least.”
Moondog and the Tree exchanged looks. “Really?” Moondog asked.
“It may be because I am running out of shock,” Somnambula admitted. “Have you seen frosting? By the stars. It would have been a priceless delicacy in my time, and yet one can simply go to the store and buy it by the can.”
“Eaten it by the spoonful, have you?” Moondog asked, chuckling.
“I have been tempted. And yet, as incredible as it is, it is merely one small part of… everything. My own village was not yet named after me when I left. Now, it has been named that for generations. Yet it remains a village.” Somnambula snorted. “One can never tell the path history will take.”
“Which is why Moondog never considers the consequences of her actions more than five minutes into the future,” the Tree said with a straight face.
“I resent that,” Moondog said, bristling. “It’s ten minutes.”
“And since you-” Somnambula pointed at the Tree. “-are very much playing the long game, it averages out.” She chuckled. “In truth, both are needed. If one looks too far or too close, they will miss out on the other.”
“Told ya we’d be babuffs,” Moondog whispered to the Tree.
“I know, but hush,” the Tree whispered back.
“Babuffs?” Somnambula cocked her head.
“Best Arcane Being Buddies Forever,” explained the Tree. “We have educated each other in the past.”
“I see.” Somnambula lit up. “Yes, the two of you working together would be most excellent! Your skills each complement the other’s fantastically, you are of like kinds, and you have similar beginnings. It is only natural that you would come together.”
“Well, I mean…” Moondog gave the Tree a look. “I don’t know we’re that similar outside of being non-pony creatures of magic. I mean, the Tree evolved sapience naturally, I was kinda-sorta given it, and-”
“Of course the two of you are alike!” Somnambula said, spreading her wings wide. “You are both beings of the mind, of great arcane might and unconventional wisdom! It would be unthinkable for such people to not work together, surely you must see this! A few minor differences here and there change nothing. Nothing.”
Moondog’s wings twitched open by a few inches. “No, really, we’re-”
The Tree twitched and put a hoof in front of Moondog’s face. “Mother…” the Tree said slowly. “Are you trying to play matchmaker?”
Somnambula just smiled and tapped the side of her muzzle.
“The Tree’s a pownie!” Rockhoof’s laugh was like two anvils banging together. “Well, ain’t that jes’ braw! Air mebbe it’s daft, Ah dinnae ken.”
“Uh… what?” Moondog glanced at the Tree and shrugged helplessly. “And it’s not really a pony, you know, any more than I am.”
“Och, ye ken whit Ah mean,” snorted Rockhoof.
Moondog blinked. “What?”
“Dinnae mind her. She ain’t sumphish, her heid’s jes’ away by ye tearin’ the tartan,” said the Tree, waving a hoof dismissively at Moondog.
Moondog stared at the Tree. “What? Since when- How come-”
“Feh. Ah amn’t surprised.” Rockhoof rolled his eyes. “Fair some reason, a hantle’a pownies cannae twig mine accent. It’s a wee scunner, Ah’ll tell ye. Och, but how dae ye unnerstan’ me? Yer still yoong, in a manner o’speakin’.”
“Look, you two, I really don’t-”
“Yer magick imprinted on me when Ah was growin’. Ah presume that includes yer accent.”
try {
conversation.interrupt();
} catch (JerkMoveException e) {
e.ignore();
}“Hey, hey!” Moondog jumped in between Rockhoof and the Tree and waved her legs around. “I could use some help with, y’know, understanding you two, and-”
Rockhoof planted a hoof on Moondog’s chest and firmly pushed her aside. “Haud yer wheesht, lass. We’re havin’ a blether.”
“What my WHAT?”
“Do not worry yourself, Moondog,” said the Tree. Its voice was calm, but Moondog got the feeling it was two seconds away from bursting into laughter. “Rockhoof and I are simply exchanging words about words as I get to know him. It is nothing you need to concern yourself with.”
“Well- But-” Moondog opened and closed her wings several times. “It’s just- I really don’t get what you’re-”
“Yer girnin’ terribly, besides. We mean ye nae scathes.”
Moondog’s ears went flat and she nearly lunged forward. “You-”
“Yer face is trippin’ ye somethin’ fierce, bairn!” Rockhoof laughed. “Bet yer heid’s in a right fankle, innit?”
“What is going on? AM I HIGH? WHAT IN MOM’S SUNBLASTED RINK-A-DINK STARS ABOVE ARE YOU TWO SAYING?!”
“-and do ya look like a pony ’cause you wanna or ’cause we’ve made such a big impact on ya?” asked Meadowbrook. She delicately manipulated the outstretched wing in her hooves. “I mean, livin’ things got all sortsa biological whosawhatsis that shape their phenotypes, but you… Y’know, thank goodness we now got words like ‘phenotype’. One’a the most useful words out there!”
“I beg pardon,” said the Tree, “but-”
“I know, I know, and I’m sorry,” protested Meadowbrook. She didn’t take her eyes from the wing. “But I ain’t never seen no magical critter quite like this before! I need a moment to squee, thankyouverymuch.”
“You’re supposed to be squeeing over your kid, not Luna’s,” said Moondog. Her wing twitched in Meadowbrook’s grip.
“And if the Tree here’s my kid, I can deliver one heck of a ‘why don’t ya come visit anymore?’ guilt trip when I wanna squee over her,” said Meadowbrook, batting at feathers. “I learned from the best! But I can’t do anythin’ like that with you, so I ain’t got much time here.” She released the wing and squinted at a certain constellation in Moondog’s body. “ ’Sides, golems’re a new thing.”
Moondog gave the Tree a mortified look and muttered, “Sorry.” The Tree, for its part, just seemed amused. “And masses of magic naturally gaining sentience aren’t?”
“ ’Course they ain’t!” said Meadowbrook cheerfully. “Where d’ya think timberwolves come from? Or windigoes? Or Stella Ursas? Or-”
“I get it,” Moondog said quickly.
“Really, some philosophers are philosophin’ over whether life comes from magic or the other way ’round. Either way, enough magic plus enough time equals life, in some shape or another. But you?” Meadowbrook jabbed Moondog in the chest. “You were made on purpose. Direction’s a heckuva lot more interestin’ than chance!”
“I am so sorry about this,” Moondog muttered to the Tree.
“I am unbothered,” the Tree said suspiciously cheerfully. “It pleases me to see you properly engage with others.”
Meadowbrook darted around, picked up Moondog’s tail, and kept on chattering. “But, funny thing, y’still got some chance in ya, since Her Great Mooniness left ya to your own devices — ish — once you were born. And, sure, you stuck with dreams, but I don’t think Luna was thinkin’ of ya doin’ somethin’ like bein’ the go-between for me and my tree kid. Yet here you are.” She tugged lightly on Moondog’s tail. “How d’you grow, I wonder…”
self.evaporate(); abort();
It took Moondog a great effort to remain solid. “You sound like Twilight.”
“That’s what everypony’s sayin’! I knew she was the inquisitive type the second we met, but I never thought she’d be known all ’round Equestria for it! It’s smart, keepin’ the mind as active as she does.”
Meadowbrook released the tail (Moondog immediately wrapped it tightly around her leg) and trotted back so she was face-to-face with Moondog. “Anyhoo, what sorta dreams d’you manage? All of ’em?”
“Um. Pretty much, yeah. All the ones I can get to. You could talk to Mom about it.”
“But you’re here, now, so I’m talkin’ to you.”
dreamer.allowLucidity(FALSE);
--Error; JerkMoveException e
abort();“I guess you take your duties real seriously, don’tcha?” Meadowbrook stroked her chin. “Could ya go deeper’n dreams? Maybe fix problems in the head? Psychological healin’ and all that?”
“Well, I- I’ve already brought somepony out of a coma, but that was just once-”
“You have?” Meadowbrook leaned forward, a huge grin on her face. “That’s amazin'! What else can ya do?”
Moondog flailed her hooves. “I don’t know! I haven’t tried anything else! I was made to make dreams and I- I don’t want to break anything!”
“Ah,” said Meadowbrook. She looked off into the distance for a moment, then shivered. “Yeah, yeah, good point. Still, maybe with a li’l work, we could get ya healin’ the mind like nopony’s business. Although-”
The Tree cleared its throat. “Meadowbrook. Mother.”
“Oh, dearie me, ‘mother’.” Meadowbrook shook her head. “I ain’t never gonna get used to that.”
“While I enjoy seeing you engaged,” said the Tree, “our time is limited and you are keeping Moondog from her duties.”
“Well, what’re you doin’, then?”
“Being in desperate need of help,” said Moondog, “as opposed to being grilled about something I don’t know about. Look, maybe we can talk about this some other night, or you can talk to Mom about it, but right now, I’m busy, so-”
“Heh. Sorry, you’re right.” Meadowbrook smiled and shook her head. “But it’s so excitin’! There’s all sortsa things I can learn and- Y’know, you both better hoof it ’fore I go off again. Stay safe.”
“You, too.” Moondog plucked at the dream and it dissolved in a flash. To the Tree, she said, “Is she related to Twilight? I bet she’s related to Twilight.”
“I have no way of knowing. I am a spirit of friendship, not a genealogist.” Pause. “Shall we hire one to find out?”
“Well, if we pool our funds, we have a grand total of… zero bits.”
“Hmm. Unfortunate.”
“I am curious,” said the Tree. “Is there any one reason in the particular as to why we are making Star Swirl our last visit? I am aware of the regard ponies hold for him, and so one would think…” Pause. “What would one think?”
“One would think that since Star Swirl is the most magically-oriented of the Pillars,” said Moondog, “that he’d be the one most interested in what you are rather than who you are. Don’t worry, he’s getting better. But he’ll try to keep you for hours as he unravels your… tree-ness, so I figured putting him last would give the others more time. I mean, I never thought Rockhoof would be the chatty one.”
“Yes, we had quite the blether, did we not?”
--Error; InterruptedThoughtException e“…Seriously, did my mana channels get crossed during that or something? Because… Bleh, never mind. Anyway, uh, one quick thing. Back when he entered limbo creating life was… a bit of a no-no. He’s adjusted a bit — you can tell because he doesn’t freak out around me — but, still, you can imagine how he’ll react when he learns that he created life. So just take it slow, okay?”
“I see.” The Tree nodded slowly, paused, then nodded quickly. “Yes, yes, I understand.” Its eyes seemed to be twinkling.
Moondog considered being suspicious, but they were almost done, which meant she could go back to being a fly on the wall. “Alright. Here we go.”
tree.setLocation("adwl://dreamer.uncn/surface?hexID=4d722e207468652042656172646564&lucid=y");
self.setLocation("adwl://dreamer.uncn/surface?hexID=4d722e207468652042656172646564&lucid=y");Star Swirl’s dragon swooped around the airship and hurled another gout of fire into the gasbag. It blasted clean out the other side in a plume of flame. Fire billowed out along the seams, running up and down the length of the airship, and slowly consumed the outer envelope as the entire vessel descended wildly.
“Oh, not bad,” Moondog muttered from her and the Tree’s point on the ground. “You know that helium isn’t flammable, right?” she yelled up at Star Swirl, her voice carrying even above the conflagration of the airship. “And that’s one of the main reasons ponies use it, right? And that it’s been alchemically altered to give it a better lifting potential than unenchanted hydrogen anyway, right?”
“I know!” Star Swirl yelled as his dragon spiralled lazily down. “Satisfaction trumps reality or it’s magic, take your pick!”
The Tree, however, watched with considerable concern. “Should we be worried?” it whispered.
Moondog waved a hoof dismissively. “Nah, he hates airships. Scare the night fertilizer out of him. Only airships, too. Bet he’s dreaming that that one’s empty. Don’t worry about it.”
The airship smashed into the ground, throwing a colossal fireball into the air, so intensely realized Moondog could smell it.
“Hmm.” The Tree rustled its wings. “I shall take you at your word.”
The dragon landed heavily in front of Moondog and the Tree; Star Swirl slid off it easily and landed neatly on all fours. His robe had been swapped out for a suit of armor, patterned like his usual clothes. He sniffed at the air and grinned. “I love the smell of airship in the morning.”
“Don’t let insurance companies know that,” said Moondog.
“So what are you doing here?” Star Swirl asked. “And what’s that?” He pointed at the Tree.
The Tree blinked and opened its mouth; Moondog stepped in before it could say anything. “So, uh,” she said, “now, don’t freak out or anything, but remember how you thought about creating life?”
“Of course.” Star Swirl nodded.
“And remember how you’ve performed lots of experiments with magic in the not-too-distant and very-hugely-distant past?” Trying to cautiously lead Star Swirl in without a plan was harder than it had seemed.
“I do indeed.”
“And remember how you said you hoped somepony would tell you if it turned out you unleashed a self-aware magical being on Equestria?” Great, she was babbling. Smooth.
Star Swirl scowled. “Could you get to the point?”
“Star Swirl…” Moondog swallowed. “This is the Tree of Harmony.”
“The… Tree…” Star Swirl blinked twice and looked back and forth between Moondog and the Tree. “…of…” His eyes grew huge and his pupils grew so small they nearly vanished.
With a smile a foot wide, the Tree spread its wings and held its legs out for a hug. “Daddy!”
“You knew that would happen. You KNEW,” Moondog growled.
“And it was the most fun I’ve had in millennia!” The Tree rolled on the lack of floor of the collective unconscious, clutching its chest, laughing uproariously. “To think that it was possible for Star Swirl, of all ponies, to look like that!”
“Yeah, but now have to wait until he manages to fall back asleep, and how long do you think that’ll take? It could be hours! Maybe he won’t get to sleep again until tomorrow night!”
The Tree lay on its back and grinned up at Moondog. “And I shall harbor no impatience if I must wait until tomorrow night. You may leave me until then. I understand the responsibilities you shoulder.”
Back to waiting. Easy for the millennium-plus-old tree to wait. What was it doing all day, anyway? Nothing. Just sitting around, sticking its roots down and its leaves up and being all sparkly. (Moondog glanced at her own leg. Okay, sparkliness probably didn’t mean anything in being effective.)
“However…” The Tree got back to its feet. “It would not surprise me if, in his surprise, Star Swirl cast a sleep spell on himself to return here as soon as possible. We ought to wait, if only for five minutes.”
“I mean…” Moondog bobbed her head back and forth as she thought. “I… Yeah, probably. …How do you know that?”
“As I said to Rockhoof-”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“-when the Pillars infused the seed I grew from with their magic, so too did they infuse parts of themselves. Small parts, yet parts nonetheless, and those parts remained as I came to be. I have a dim impression of them, one of the crudest form. And Star Swirl…”
“Yeah, I get you.” Moondog ran a hoof through her mane. “Just- five minutes. If he’s not around by then, I’ll go back to work and check in every ten mi-”
Star Swirl’s door popped into existence next to them, a darkwood one with gold filigree.
“What is with that guy?” Moondog muttered.
“Quite a lot,” the Tree replied, pushing open the door.
The inside of the dream was a bit twitchy, like it was on the verge of falling apart. Probably a side effect of whatever Star Swirl had used to knock himself out. Star Swirl himself paced around and around in a circle, obviously waiting. He glanced up as Moondog and the Tree entered his dream and hiccuped. “Um. Hello.” His gaze danced back and forth between Moondog and the Tree.
self.psychUp();
“Hey,” said Moondog. “As I was saying, this is the Tree of Harmony-” Moondog turned to the Tree. “-and I swear to Mom and Aunt Celly and Twilight and Cadance and any other princesses I’m missing, if you wake him up again, I’ll slap you silly.”
The Tree grinned at Moondog, then nodded to Star Swirl. “Father.”
The dream twitched, but held. “So… you…” Star Swirl blinked repeatedly as he gazed blankly at the Tree. “I…” He collapsed backwards onto his rump and smiled weakly. “I suppose I’ll have to ask Luna for some surprise parenting tips.” He glanced meaningfully at Moondog and chuckled.
But his laughter soon died and he gazed off into the distance. “Every day,” he said, “I am confronted with how little I understand friendship. The Pillars and I, when we planted your seed-” He pointed vaguely in something resembling the direction of the Tree. “-we thought it would protect Equestria, but we never imagined how.” He snorted. “I assumed, in my limited view, that it would be a sort of energy field that would… do something. But of course the protective spirit of Equestria would grow into a… a person you could be friends with. How could it not?”
Shaking slightly, Star Swirl got to his hooves and looked the Tree in the eye. “I… I want to apologize.” He held up a hoof when the Tree opened its mouth. “If I had known that… you would become… you, I… I would have done something to help you down the line. You didn’t ask for these responsibilities and I foisted them onto-”
“You had no way of knowing, Father,” the Tree replied, putting a hoof on Star Swirl’s shoulder. “And you speak of ‘foisting’ responsibilities onto me as if one could ‘foist’ the development of a spell onto you. I was born from the desire of the Pillars to protect Equestria, and so I do.”
“Remind you of someone?” Moondog asked, just barely not grinning.
Star Swirl laid his own hoof on the Tree’s. “I… I think I understand, but not entirely. I am no psychologist.” He glanced at Moondog. “Psychologists didn’t exist in my time. I shudder to think of what I would have done back then.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head. In a not-completely-serious voice, he muttered, “Why do magical beings that shatter my worldview always approach me without warning?”
“Hey, gotta keep you on your hooves,” Moondog said with a shrug. “You had it too easy when you were the brightest mage Equestria had in centuries.”
“I expected the difficulty to go from 2 to 3, not 2 to Recalibrate the Scale Because it’s Too Small,” said Star Swirl. He faced the Tree again. “I apologize, I’m still trying to get my thoughts in order.”
“I know the feeling,” the Tree said, nodding. “When I first had thoughts, they were overwhelming. One can come up with any concept they wish simply by thinking about it. And my sense of self. I was me and not something else. For things originating entirely from oneself, thoughts can be quite disruptive. You may have all the time you desire.”
Star Swirl blinked. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it again, turned to Moondog, pointed at the Tree, and opened his mouth one last time.
“Hey, don’t look at me,” Moondog said. “I’m nothing but thought.”
It was with a slow, jerky motion and his mouth still open that Star Swirl turned back to the Tree. In a low voice, he said, “I think, sometime, you and I need to have a long talk about… everything.”
“We can do it now, if you wish,” the Tree said. “I do not require Moondog to find my way back, so we shall not be keeping her.”
“Really, you won’t be,” Moondog said.
But Star Swirl shook his head. “No, it’s… I have… I have a lot to think about.” Deep breath in, deep breath out. “Moondog, can you send the Tree a message when I am eventually ready?”
“‘Can I take a message’, he asks. Pfft.” Moondog rolled her eyes. “Can Mom eat an entire pineapple in one gulp?”
Star Swirl and the Tree gave each other a Look. “I don’t know, can she?” asked Star Swirl.
Sigh. “Yes, I can take a message.”
“Thank you.” To the Tree, Star Swirl said, “I’m sorry we couldn’t talk more tonight, but I hope to have much to discuss with you in the future.”
The Tree bowed its head. “I eagerly await it. Farewell.” Pause. “Pops.”
“Okay, I know I said I’d slap you silly, but that one, that, that was pretty good.”
“It was, was it not?”
“Plus, y’know, we don’t have to wait for him anymore.” Moondog cleared her throat. “Anyway, uh, now what? You’ll just go back to… whatever existence you had before?”
“Indeed.” The Tree gave a small bow. “I may call on you in the future, but for now, I have no need for assistance.”
“Maybe I should see if I can teach you about leaving the students’ dreams. That way, I don’t need to shuttle you around whenever you want to have a chat.”
The Tree bit its lip. “Ah…” It rustled its wings. “Yes and no. That is certainly an ideal skill for me to learn, it is just as important — perhaps more so — that you add social visits such as these to your repertoire. You are supplanting your mother as the protector of dreams, yes?”
Moondog’s wings tensed up. She’d always known this was coming and done her best to ignore it. Of course, a princess who ignored things she didn’t like would be a pretty crappy princess. “Yeah, but-”
“Then you ought to become accustomed to such interactions. No longer will you be able to pawn off ponies and their worries onto Luna.”
“Can’t I pawn them off onto Twilight?”
For a being of harmony and concord, the Tree could manage a spectacularly disapproving look.
“Well,” protested Moondog, “I mean… it’s…”
argue();
--Error; NullPointerException e“Fine! Fine.” Moondog flexed her wings. Stupid tree with its stupid sense about stupid socializing. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”
“Not in the slightest. Many things in life we dislike are necessary. Giving the students a place where they could feel comfortable and safe may have strengthened my bond with them, but…” The Tree shivered and whispered, “They are crawling about inside me. It took weeks to begin to ignore them.”
“Huh. Ew.”
“Indeed. But I do not regret it. Remember, the ones we serve are people, and we must treat them as such, not as entries on a checklist. Even Twilight knows that much.”
“Not the greatest comparison. Twilight knows people better than both of us combined, and on a bad day, she treats checklist entries better than people.”
“True.”
“Still…” Moondog nodded reluctantly. “That’s a good point, soooooo… IIIIII… guess I’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the tip, and see you later.”
The Tree spread its wings. “I thank you for your time, and may you fare well.” And it was gone.
Moondog looked around carefully, just in case, and breathed a sigh of relief when she couldn’t see anybody. Alone. Now she could get back to regular old dreams where she could hang out in the shadows and didn’t need to talk to anypony.
“Moondog, do you by any chance know why Meadowbrook sent me a scroll a foot in diameter asking about mental healing spells? And why that scroll mentions working with you no less than three times every paragraph?”
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this was uploaded 23 seconds ago ? lol
Must be a code. Try remove the word Moondog from every paragraph and you should get the real message.
Rockhoof's accent reminds me strongly of the Feegles from Discowrld. Also that ending with Meadowbrook's scroll was funny.
I got that feeling too!
----
Hmm. I wonder what the Tree of Harmony would look like on the other side of the portal. And how much it could do dream duties, along with Moondog...
----
Typo:DupeNVM. Tree and Self! Oooh!
And I guess Moondog doesn't have parties enough to make a Party / Group variable to handle things, so they have to do it individually.
Fun how Stars is the only one Tree felt tempted to do that with.
It's nice that Moondog knows when she needs to stop herself from pulling that kind of crap. Ever-evolving, that tulpa.
This is amazing. I was trying to follow along with that convo and had about as much understanding of it as Moondog did.
I'm going to have to use this scale sometime in the future, either in story or real life.
10591367
Probably because it knew it would get the best reaction out of him.
10591419
Pretty sure they could have gotten an epic freak out from Magnus.
Great chapter! I was smiling all the way through. The part where Tree greeted Starswirl as "Daddy" just to get that reaction out of him...that was funny. I laughed out loud.
Go look up the difference between an accent and a dialect.
So who was it that asked the last question, was it luna?
10591473
Or a language; I know of some people who consider Scots its own language. Possibly out of a "fuck you" to the Brits, but there's not a hard line distinction between a dialect and a language, so Scots is often a close enough case to count as either.
But yeah, he's definitely talking Scots, rather than English (or pony equivalent) with an accent.
I've kind of always seen Starswirl as a "problem dodger" due to how he dealt with things back in a day, (See: Mirror Portal/Dimensional Trashcan), so having a literal magical-construct call him "Daddy!" like a child being reunited with a father who hadn't stuck around is a hilarious bit that I'm not sure if I should have enjoyed as much as I did.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm good with this madness.
is it weird that i understood half of what Rockhoof and Harmony were saying?
Namepending cocked a crystalline eyebrow at his mother. “You don’t say.”
You forgot a B.
HA!!!!!
So basically, the tree evolved sapience naturally and you developed it artificially
Well I mean, wouldn't you technically have access to Crown Bits?
Well done kiddo
10591642
Nah, context is a powerful thing. Wouldn't have helped as much if you were listening instead of reading though.
As usual, that was awesome and hilarious.^^
I love how Rockhoof talks. As a Scot, he was quite understandable :)
I think this should be Stellar
10592313
Could I have a translation? I understand some, but the finer details escape me.
Happy Winter
Ah, Mistmane.
-Robert Heinlein.
MLP:FIM S08:E05 Really drove that home...
I would pay to see Meadowbrook and Douglas Hofstader meet and have a pleasant chat about "I".
10592404
Very roughly.
The Tree's a pony. Well, that's great. Or maybe it's dumb. I don't know.
Oh, you know what I mean.
Don't mind her. She's not sulking, she's just confused by what we're saying.
I'm not surprised. For some reason, a lot of ponies can't understand my accent. It's a small annoyance, I'll tell you. Oh, but how do you understand me? You're still young, in a manner of speaking.
Be quiet girl, we're having a chat.
You're crying a lot too. We mean no harm.
You look unhappy, child. (lit your face has fallen far enough to trip you)
I bet you're confused, aren't you?
See a bunch more here :)
Well that was wonderfully hilarious. Good job.
10592780
Thank you
Well, she's definitely Luna's kid.
Moondog Moondog, cuddling with a tree, b l e p i n g.
First become friends, then comes the shipping,
Soon you'll have new progeny to rule the dream expanding!
Compile it, link it, and sign it with a key.
And put it in the aether for future history!
Hehe, for those who don't understand the chapter title, open source refers to a programming methodology in which multiple contributors are involved in the creation of the program, and in which said contributions aren't private or restricted (in a nutshell, there's lots of nuance). Essentially, the pillars all contributed to the tree's "source" as they planted it, hence their similitude as parents.
The tree is right, getting more practice dealing with random dreamers can only be a good thing.
I was DYING of laughter at every other paragraph. OMG, So good!
Also Harmotroll (variation of Harmotree) is the BEST!
"Pops."
Effing GOLD.
I hadn't realized I wanted Flash Magnus geeking out over the last however-many centuries of military advancement, but now I want more.
Did you get help with the Rockhoof dialogue, or was it all you? Either way, A+ blether.
Hmm. This may technically be the first time someone's invoked Flurry Heart.
Lovely stuff all around. Always nice to see someone do something with the Pillars; goodness knows the show barely did.
10591650
"That must be terrible for you. So what was it like the first time they teleported one of your organs to the spa?"
10607795
All me, but only thanks to a lot of research. Google plus a Python script to scour the Scottish English category on Wiktionary for definitions that contained any given word I wanted.
I loved the Tree of Harmony's first interaction with Starswirl. It was pretty hilarious.
I have no words
For some reason, I expected a millenia old tree to act more like a wise elder… Or like a somewhat serious grown-up, at least? But I digress, the way they trolled Starswirl (and Moondog) was hilarious!
I now headcanon Shipnambula
... Scottish Rockhoof? Huh. I like it.
Oof. Gross.
10592313
Actually with it being a Latin name stella is the correct form here or more correct.
We love these little interactions between the Tree and Moondog. Although you forget that Starswirl also dislikes trains, it was mentioned in a different chapter that he has nightmares about them as much as he does airships apparently. Though that may just be a part of him fearing and disliking any new technology that is beyond his understanding.
By thickness steel is actually better. While by weight titanium alloys can have steel beat, modern steel alloys usually have the upper hand for various characteristics in therms of thickness limit
Which, if you want your armor to be wearable, is pretty important.
Harm a tree
11642667
It could be that it's a titanium/steel alloy, but Flash (aaaaahhhh) latched onto the titanium part.