Slice of Velvet and Pear

by David Silver

61 - The Mysterious Mare Do Well - Part Two

"Ah ha." Finally, she had figured it out. If the other ponies were set on being involved in Rainbow's foalishness and joining her in playing hero, they'd need something to do. Rainbow's luck was... commendable, but not reliable. What they needed was a villainous force to give them things to do.

What would the purpose be of a hero with nothing to hero? She hit up Rarity with an awkward smile. "Interesting fashion choice..."

"Luna was considering it for a new branch of guards, night guards." Moon was lying through her teeth, but it was for a good cause. "It's very secret. I'm to send it to her, but I mentioned you were an accomplished--"

"--You got this job, for me, from Princess Luna?!" Rarity giggled breathlessly, her hooves quivering. "I will get it done! Have no fear!"

And so Moon got her disguise ready. "This is very silly..." But she was just playing along. She pressed out thoughts of the foalish nature of it all and got to work. She began setting things up for Rainbow and the 'mysterious mare do well' to have to resolve. Ponies sent hurtling towards cliffs, for instance. Each was 'thwarted' by the Mare Do Well, outperforming Rainbow Dash by a considerable margin.

It wasn't Moon's job to figure out which was winning or why. She didn't even want to be seen, unlike the others. When she was doing the job right, they didn't even know she was there.

"You look tired." Pear Butter waved Moon towards the dining room table. "Take a load off. Want to share?"

"No." But Moon did take the seat, sinking comfortably on it. "It's been busy."

Pear considered quietly a moment. "Well... I won't force you, but if you want to talk about it, you just speak up. "

"Hm." Moon curled a hoof to her chin. "You ever help your friends with something, even if you thought it was ill-advised?"

Pear let out a little snort. "It'd be harder to find a pony who never did that at least once." She glanced left and right. "Is Applejack involved in this?"

Moon cringed. "I don't mean to get her in trouble."

Pear sealed her lips a moment. "Sorry, that was badly phrased of me. You ain't in any trouble." She dropped her chin on Moon's head, cradling her gently. "Poor thing, you're clearly worried. Nopony's getting in trouble, promise. I just want to know what's happening, so I can help."

"Well..." Moon wriggled with uncertainty, but if she couldn't tell Pear Butter, who could she? "Rainbow Dash and the others are in a competition to see who can be the best hero."

Pear cocked a brow up. "I heard of Rainbow Dash, showboating. How are the others involved in this?"

So Moon ran down the basics, including her own part. "Don't tell them. I am trying to be subtle."

"I dare say you're doing a fine job of that... But ah'm not sure ah like... it... Sugarcube, you're putting a lot of ponies at risk. Damaging a dam?! Look... I said nopony's getting in trouble... A promise is a promise... But, please... No more of that. Not one bit more, please." Pear took a slow breath, sides quivering in a shake. "Please."

Moon closed her eyes. "Then how do I help? How can they finish their competition if there aren't enough problems for them to resolve?"

Pear gave that serious thought. "Well... Would it be the end of the world if their competition just ran dry?"

"Then their game would have to stop." Pear was rolling a hoof at Moon. "Their game... would have to stop..." Moon sat up, the weight of her realization settling on her. "Genius. I should have thought of that." She clopped a hoof to her face. "Thank you for talking sense into me. It's time to change tactics."

Pear inclined an ear. "That don't sound like a pony that's walkin' away... What are you plannin'? Ah won't tell, promise."

Moon trusted her, smiling at her supportive mature friend. "I will reverse course and prevent things from happening. I won't take credit. Hopefully.... They won't see me. I'll just make it so there's nothing for any of them to do."

Pear struck her hooves together. "Ah get it. Clever girl, just be careful. Can... You do that? Stop problems before they become problems."

"I think I know who I can get that knowledge from." Moon hopped to her hooves. "I should go and start that. You've been an immense aid. Thank you."

Pear waved at her departing form. "Hope it works out." But it was out of her hooves. The only other things she thought she could do was to tackle Moon to the ground, or tattle on her to Applejack. Neither felt particularly compelling. She let the young mare off to find her own way.

---

"I need your help."

Pinkie slammed a hoof to her chest. "You have a super serious face on! I'm ready! Did you forget a birthday?" She took a moment to consider all the birthdays in the town. "Mmmm, no... unless it's from far away?" She leaned in with a big smile. "Please say it's that. That sounds fun!"

Moon shook her head at her eager friend. "I need your Pinkie Powers. You have an extremely well-honed ability to predict upcoming calamities."

Pinkie gasped, somehow becoming happier. "Is there a calamity you want me to keep an eye on?"

"Actually..." She turned a hoof on herself. "I want you to teach me. Show me how to do that, please."

Pinkie blinked with obvious shock. "Wow... Nopony ever asked that before... I'm not sure if I can..." She mused on that. "But trying could be fun... Are you ready to do something hard, gruelling, and maybe impossible?"

Moon nodded slowly. "I am prepared. If I fail, it will be my own fault. Please, instruct me."

Pinkig clapped her hooves with perhaps too much joy. "I haven't been a teacher very often. This is too exciting. Alright! First step, we have to de-unicorn you."

"De... unicorn me?" She raised a hoof to her horn with mild worry. "I require this."

"Not today you don't," sang out Pinkie. "No more big thoughts. empty that head of yours. If you hear a word in there, tell it to shut up. Shhh. Quiet time. That's your first job, be quiet." She tapped at her own head. "Up here. Think nothing. That's not as easy as you look like you think. Which you should stop. No thinking!"

"No thinking..." Moon thought about that, which she realized she shouldn't be doing. She frowned with the concentration of not thinking anything, struggling against her very nature. Unicorns tended to think a lot...

"Now you're getting it." Pinkie nodded with satisfaction. "Don't feel bad. Even a pegasus or another earth pony would have to do this. Unicorns just have it hardest. They got a lot going on up there. Empty it, be nothing." She sank into a meditative seat that didn't look quite right on a pony. "Become one with the void itself, for it is in that nothing that you will find everything."

It contradicted itself, but it was very Pinkie nonetheless.. That aligned with her overall and Moon accepted it as something else to try to figure out, later. It was time to stop thinking about that, or anything else. It was time to let go.. To be an unfilled glass for the universe itself to fill with whatever it wanted to. "I am empty," she softly whispered to herself. "I am nothing." She repeated her words back and forth, her mantra helping her inch closer and closer.

Pinkie seemed nothing but elated. "Oooo, good call. I shoulda thought of that. Sorry, I'm already pretty used to it, but great idea! Keep it up!" As much as she proposed empty, she was actually not excellent company while doing it. A source of noise and discordance while Moon struggled to clear herself.

She was nothing, empty, and waiting for something. "Are you thirsty?"

Pinkie blinked, not expecting that question. "Since you brought it up... yes. What made you think of that?"

Moon opened her eyes with a smile deeper than her usual fare. "I felt it. You are dry. The more you talked, the more obvious it seemed." She pointed to the kitchen in the library. "Get a drink."

"Good idea!" Pinkie bounced off towards the water. "You keep thinking about nothing," she sang, the sound of flowing water issuing from out of sight as she worked on that need.

Moon closed her eyes and returned to that quiet place, whispering her mantra to herself and leaving no room for anything but that state she had reached once and hoped she could reach again. Pinkie's energetic bouncing had knocked a book over, easy to miss in her energetic whirlwind. That book was sitting in front of the door. When the door opened, it would hit the book. If a pony was going full speed, the book would hit the bookshelf. This would stop the door. The pony had a good chance of crashing into the door.

Moon could see the scene play before her eyes. It wasn't nothing. It was something. But it was something she could do something about? She rose to her hooves and lit her horn, lifting the book up. She barely got it out of the way in time for the door to swing open and Twilight to march through, barely paying attention to where she was going. "Moon!" She spotted Moon Dancer, and the floating book. "Are you cleaning up, or finding a new book to enjoy?"

Moon tucked the book on its proper shelf. "Cleaning. Welcome back, Twilight." They met, touching snouts together in a moment of fond greetings. "Pinkie is educating me."

"Pinkie?!" Twilight inclined her head. "Is she teaching you how to bake?"

"I am pretty good at that." Pinkie returned, nursing water from a glass. "But nope! She wanted to learn some Pinkie magic, so I'm sharing."

Twilight's snout wrinkled a moment. "Oh, that... Moon, I don't know why this has fascinated you so thoroughly. Her juvenile stunts are a combination of luck and happenstance."

Moon inclined her head. "Isn't that the same thing twice?"

Twilight waved that off. "I love you, Pinkie, I do, but it isn't 'magic'. Earth ponies don't do magic."

Pinkie didn't try to argue it, allowing Twilight instead to move on to other things. As soon as they were away, Pinkie leaned in towards Moon. "Well, how's it going? Is it magic?"

Moon pinned an ear back. "No." Pinkie's expression fell. "But it is just as special." That got her to brighten. "I will need practice, but I feel I've taken a step forward."

Pinkie chugged the rest of the glass. "Alright! You keep doing that. If you need any help at all, I'm just a shout away." She giggled at the idea. "In fact, you can shout for me even if you don't need help. Just put your hooves together and holler, 'Pinkie!' and I'll come running. That sounds fun..."

Moon nodded in her usual sedate way. "I will do that. By the way, when do I get to meet your family?"

Pinkie gasped in a few octaves at once. "I went and forgot! I'll write a letter right now!" She fled in a flurry of pink smoke, off to see that task done.

Moon sank, quiet returning to the area. "I am quiet. I am nothing. I am quiet..." It was a place she found she liked. Muted serenity was a fine place to be, free of the usual stressful noises. She just had to practice at being so empty, the little things of the universe started to become more obvious. To be so still, even little movements felt like entire mountains were uprooting themselves. Was it magic? No... But it was just as good. Pinkie tricks were worthy of further study.

Author's Note:

It may be just me, but I adore Moon and Pinkie's dynamics.

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Comments

[Greenhorn]

Don't which one is harder to learn - Pinkie Sense or Fluttershy's Stare.

[Venerable Ro]

Pinkie perceptiveness prescribes profound perspicacity.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

I took a not for credit course to learn transcendental meditation in college. It's hard to not think. Cudos to Moon for achieving it at all.

[David Silver]

11662389
I touched that state, once, and was deeply unnerved when I gazed into nothing.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

11662400
I found it restful. But then my mind is normally running at a high speed.

[David Silver]

11662403
It could be that I was specifically trying to reach nothing, and I found it. I saw nothing. I was nothing. I quickly fled back to something.

[TheGJ90]

I actually tried out Moony's meditation and I found it quite soothing to my overactive mind. Of course, because it is overactive, getting every thought to shut up is not easy for me without a mantra.

I should stress: I haven't achieved 'nothingness' yet. I feel like I'm getting close though.

[Booster Spice]

Pinkie is so good, she can show others how to almost Pinkie by not pinkie because noone can pinkie like pinkie. Even Pinkies.

I wonder if Moondancer can progress as high as Meerschaum, or even Deerstalker?

[redandready45]

"Now you're getting it." Pinkie nodded with satisfaction. "Don't feel bad. Even a pegasus or another earth pony would have to do this. Unicorns just have it hardest. They got a lot going on up there. Empty it, be nothing." She sank into a meditative seat that didn't look quite right on a pony. "Become one with the void itself, for it is in that nothing that you will find everything."

Best philosopher ever!