Chapter 8 - A Stone Turned
By the time Light Breeze came down the hall that led to the apartment, she'd been buoyed by her time with her friends and self-acceptance, but she had been told before school to return directly after and wasn't prepared to see what the price of disobedience might be.
It was time to hold her heart high over the currents that were to come.
Half-expecting—and hoping—the locks to have been changed, she was surprised to find her keys still worked, and stepped into the living room to find Frank and her brothers clustered about the couch in their coats. A couple tackle boxes sat on the coffee table. May, on her laptop in the easy chair, hadn't dressed to go anywhere, but she seemed tired.
"Go on back to your room." Frank nodded to the hall. "Get some clothes. We need to hit the road if we're going to get where we're going before it's too dark."
Light Breeze paused with a hand on the open front door, in case she needed to flee in a hurry. "Where are we going?"
"A cabin out in the woods. My buddy, Jonah, lent it out to us." Frank patted the top of the nearest tackle box. "We're going to take the Veterans Day weekend off. Just a few days with us guys."
He could hardly have said anything to make Light Breeze less eager to go. She pushed the door shut as it became awkward to stand there, but came no closer. "I'm not going hunting ever again, and you can't make me. Might as well leave me home."
"No hunting, but we will be taking a break from the city and all this daily grind nonsense." He stepped over from the couch, reaching out. "No email, no computers, and, most importantly..." He paused, reaching into the pocket of her coat and pulling out Jaime's phone. "No cellphones."
Light Breeze growled, pulling back and snatching at her coat. "How did you know?"
"Adam thought you were holding out on us, and he checked the router and saw another device." He returned to the couch. "He's going to put parental controls on your laptop before I give it back, and only if you're on your best behavior. That shit has been poisoning your brain. We're going to rein this family back in." He gave her a look as anger twisted her features. "Oh, knock that off. I got along without cellphones and laptops for most of my youth. When you're an adult, you can make those sorts of decisions. My old man never even gave me that much, so you should be grateful."
With anger making her bunch up, she looked to the door and seriously considered making a break for it, but the only place she could see herself going was the Gaines' house, and it wouldn't be safe. She looked to the window, to the cold outside air under grey skies, and knew she didn't have what it took to survive out there, least of all in her human form.
The anger drained from her as she failed to explode at him, to shout that she didn't want to go and he couldn't make her, leaving her empty and tired.
"Fine, whatever." She stalked by them to her room, crying bitter tears. Over and over again she reminded herself under her breath that she was going flying as soon as she woke up as she opened up an old, brown suitcase that had been Adam's and stuffed it with clothes and books.
Or she would have, except all of the interesting fantasy books she'd gotten from the used bookstore were gone from her shelves.
"This world is a nightmare, and all nightmares pass," she whispered. "I'll see my mom and dad again soon."
For a bit, after snapping the case shut, she stared out at the fire escape, but any thoughts of fleeing were crushed as Frank's shadow loomed in the frame of light from the hall. He sounded chipper, as if he could make it fun just by injecting it into his voice. "Hey, kiddo. Let's go. We wanna get there before it gets too dark."
Gritting her teeth, Light Breeze grabbed her bag and followed him out.
They stopped at a little roadside diner along the way with red-cushioned seats and white-and-black tiled floors. When Light Breeze had asked if they had vegetarian options for the burgers, she'd received such an odd look that she'd just sighed and ordered the salad with a side of fruit.
Some diners provided impressive fruit platters and inspired salads, but what arrived before her was limp lettuce with store bought dressing and a few chunks of sliced melon and honeydew alongside three grapes.
Adam laughed when he saw it, lifting his big burger and taking a bite. After he chewed, he nodded towards Light Breeze's side of the table. "I've been watching you suffer through rabbit food for years. Sure I can't tempt you to take a nice, big bite of this beautiful, perfectly cooked burger?"
"No, thank you," she said, hoping politeness would dissuade him.
Whether it was some hidden frustration in her voice unwittingly revealed or his longstanding habit of picking on her rearing its ugly head, though, Adam only seemed more annoyed. "You've always been a holier-than-thou little brat, Owen. Why do you gotta be like this? C'mon, no wonder you're so small when all you eat are beans, salad, and, uh." He turned to Jeremiah. "What was that weird orange shit yesterday, Remi?"
Looking like he wished he could be anywhere else, Jeremiah dipped his fries in sauce. "Squash."
"Right, squash. Gross."
Vegetarianism was one of those things that set him off, but, even if she wanted to, she doubted she could even make the attempt. It was already hard to think of eating cows, given that they could talk back where she came from and still far too cute in the her current world. "I don't want to eat meat, Adam. When did I ever preach to the rest of you about what you should or shouldn't eat?"
"I see you judging us all the time," Adam said, pausing to take a big bite and swallow it down with Diet Sprite. "Just like last night. Having your weird little freak out session and calling Dad a 'stallion.' I dunno why you had to rope Remi into it, but that was pretty shitty." He glowered at Light Breeze, and a shiver went down her spine. "You're getting weirder and freakier all the time."
"Knock it off," Frank said gruffly. "This is a time to bond with family, Adam. We're trying to get past that shit."
"Sure, Dad." Adam returned to savoring his burger, and Light Breeze could only force herself to eat instead of snapping in his face. "Really looking forward to it."
When the car rumbled to a stop in the porch lights of the cabin, the sky had already gone dark, and the forest stood as a vast and still sea of shadowed trees. Light Breeze hopped out onto the gravel and stretched, looking up at the building. It was large and very modern, with clean lines, an open floor plan, and lots of glass.
"Here we are," Frank said, stepping out of the passenger seat. His boots crunched in the dirt as he went to open the trunk and hand out bags. "Remember, guys, we don't own this place or anything here, so treat it respectfully, or it'll be your ass on the hook paying for it."
He opened the door with a key and lit up the interior, but Light Breeze had little interest in exploring. "Where do we sleep?" she asked, glancing to a floating staircase. If it weren't for the company, she might have appreciated the place's almost pegasus-like aesthetic. Jeremiah and Adam went at once to turn the big TV on.
"Guys, hold on," Frank called, to little avail. He shook his head and gestured for her to follow him up the stairs to a half floor. "You get the room at the end," he said, opening the door at the back of the little mezzanine. Within was a twin-sized bed, a closet, and a desk, with photos of the local environment on every wall that didn't feature a large window covering the corner.
"It's nice," she admitted grudgingly, and made to enter only to find Frank's hand holding her back. His touch made her skin crawl.
"There's no NyQuil here," he said, meeting her eyes. "You're not going to be able to just hide in here and sleep. Tomorrow, we're going fishing, and I'll teach you how to clean and cook them." He let go. "You've been trying to learn how to cook, right? Well I'll show you a thing or two. And don't belly ache about your vegetarianism kick—fish are barely even animals."
Light Breeze bit her cheek, staring back. "I'm fine with fish."
"Great. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow, then."
Her relief at his absence was palpable, and she barely even bothered to undress after shutting the door and threw herself into bed. Desperately, she counted pegasi flying with her eyes squeezed shut.
Perhaps it hadn't been as horrifyingly violent as she thought it would be, but the sooner she was back under her mother's wing, the better.
Had Princess Luna—Selene, for the time being—been in complete control of the might of her fully realized alicorn potential, the city of Philadelphia would have trembled to its foundations for the sins she had borne witness to. Such cruelty and deprivation had been unknown in Equestria since before her banishment, and even then it had never reached the scale she'd seen on display.
"If a public safety officer in Equestria had behaved in such a manner to the meanest, lowest denizen of my realm, I would have pinned them in the lower atmosphere for a week." Selene poked at her salad. She had little appetite after the last couple days, but Luna the Witch needed the sustenance. "Would that magic were not so dreadfully stubborn here, and my connection not so tenuous. No offense, Luna." She nodded to the open compact by her dish. "You're doing very well for an honorary horse."
Her reflection had her arms folded on the bar table and head down, but she held up a thumb in acknowledgement.
Accepting that humans like her host were omnivorous, as she had to with many Equestrian citizens, did not make Moira's plate of Joe's Extra Hot Habanero Demon Bone Wings look any more appetizing. The neon lights off the bar's signs glowed in her short, frizzy mane like a halo. "Honestly, the biggest proof so far that you're the real deal is that he didn't arrest a Black woman for starting shit with a white man." She took a swig of beer that actually smelled rather nice, but Selene didn't want to test her vessel's capacity. Luna was as fragile as the average unicorn.
"Were it not for that nice couple with the broken van bringing food to the camp, I might have begun to wonder if the entire species were discordant—no offense intended. It was bracing to assist them."
"I suppose that's the other thing." Moira slathered dressing over a wing and crunched down. "I know for a fact Luna couldn't fix an engine to save her life. She needs tech support just to operate a washing machine. If that wasn't evidence of divine providence, I don't know what was."
"Hey!" Her reflection lifted her head. "That washer was busted, and she knows it."
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Selene said. "It's unbecoming. As for the engine, it was hardly a spell. It was a more sophisticated internal combustion engine than I am accustomed to, but any machine can be understood by breaking it down into its constituent parts. All they needed was a few connectors reseated, and the corrosion on their battery suggests they will need it replaced."
Moira washed her food down and pointed at her with the bottle. "You keep talking about 'spells' and how your magic is out of reach, and that's what's been on my mind since this whole mystic quest started. I sank most of my life until this point looking for any hint of magic, to the point where I frankly didn't believe in it anymore, but you waltz in with Luna's body and tell us that, where you're from, people move the sky so often it's routine. Why? What is wrong with us that we don't get to see any of that? Why doesn't magic exist here in this dead fucking universe?"
Automatically, Selene opened her mouth to admonish her for her language, but she stopped herself. Treating Moira like a child just then would do her no good, and her clear distress demanded a compassionate answer. "Of course magic exists here." Selene forced down some more of the bland lettuce and watery tomatoes, drinking water and wiping her mouth before continuing. Not that she wasn't known for an exhausted lack of etiquette at times herself—particularly mornings. "Magic exists everywhere. It's the fundamental basis of reality, lower than the simmering of the tiniest elementary particle, and that is true even in the furthest, most alien universe. Even here, you understand why." She tapped the compact. "What was it that we discussed before I left to scour the dreamscape last night, Luna, about how you conceive of magic?"
She lifted her head again, rubbing her eyes. "Uh… that magic is how the material world accesses the divine? Magic is how matter negotiates with spirit."
"Yes!" To Moira, Selene smiled. "If you know what Luna knows, then you understand that magic isn't some physical force. A pony isn't a battery sending potential from high to low to create work. Trust me—I know magic and machines both." She gestured, splaying her hand. "Where I am from, every living being is so closely connected to the divine that our cells contain special structures that receive the breath of Harmony and transform it into powerful magic that directly affects the material world." She leaned in. "Magic is how mortals engage in communication with higher principles. It's a negotiation between our souls and the wider cosmos. I've been able to summon up strength even apart from my body by drawing on my own connection. Your world is simply devoid of magic in the same way that a couple who aren't communicating are devoid of understanding."
"So, what gives, then?" Moira's voice was tinged with a hint of desperation. "I've been crying out my whole life. Why won't the cosmos communicate back? I'd given up believing and started using the things I learned to turn parlor tricks and lie to people's faces." She slapped the table and covered her face with a hand. "I'm in an abusive relationship with the gods-damned universe!"
Others at the bar turned to glare at them. Selene cast them a hot look back to mind their own business and took Moira's hand in hers. She didn't like fingers, and her hands ached and had a habit of seizing up, but it was worth it to massage some comfort into her and meet her eyes. Moira's shone with unshed tears. "I wish I could give you a clear answer, Moira, but I'm still puzzling it out. The state of your dream world is part of it, but not sufficient in and of itself. It's choked and tangled, strangling your souls, but I believe that to be a symptom rather than a direct cause. I've been here for almost twenty-four hours and have seen neither hide nor hair of another prince or princess, and I fear you may have been abandoned. I won't abandon you, though, my young friends. This, I swear."
The reflection turned her head, as if to avert her gaze from Moira struggling not to break down in broken sobs right there. "We have legends of magic. Stories going back millennia. Other witches believe that we've… maybe fallen from grace, somehow, like magic used to be plentiful, but we've moved away from it. Some believe that it will come back. I always have."
"What can you or anyone do, Selene?" Moira asked, choked up. "I can see you in Luna's eyes, but you're barely present."
"I'm far from powerless, and so are you." Selene squeezed her hand and pulled hers back before the negative feedback could kick her out of Luna the Witch's body. It already felt like an ill-fitting skin after a whole day, and the reflection's mental exhaustion was symptomatic of that. "I'm going to teach you both a kind of magic that I am absolutely certain you can master, even if the rest of the world is numb, because any dreaming soul can. Dreamriding will let you help me when the time comes to start gardening the astral world, just as my beloved vespers do back home. It may be a symptom, but, if we can start fixing the dreamscape, it will help not only with the character of people's souls but give you all some room to breathe as well. I can't say it will restore you to the level of connection my world has with the divine, but I am confident it will help."
The hope that spread on Moira's face ached to behold. Before she could say anything else, a buzzing in Luna's purse caught her attention, and she frowned. "There's that noise again. I've heard it a few times, but didn't catch it in time before." She opened it up to peek and found the phone buzzing amid her wallet and packaged herbs.
"Oh, shit!" Luna's reflection jerked up. "That's my phone! Answer it, please; it could be a client. I sent out emails to let them know I was out of town for a couple days, but one might not have gotten the message."
"You shouldn't lie like that," Luna chided, picking it up. "If your clients can't understand that you're busy having a spiritual experience, maybe you should seek others. Who is 'George?' I presume not a griffon." There was a green button with arrows, and she swiped it up.
"Agh! No! Not him! Don't answer!" She groaned. "He's a white boy who thinks he's hot shit with Latinas because he lived in Mexico City for a couple years."
Too late. "Hola, chica!" He then proceeded to proposition her in more poorly accented Spanish, which Selene had learned was the local name. "Finally! I've been begging and praying for you to answer my calls, sugar. I knew you couldn't resist coming back to me, my lovely chocolate goddess."
Selene's face hardened the more he went on. She cut him off before he could get further into exactly what he wanted to do to Luna's body. "Excuse me, you pathetic, insolent colt, but if you compare Luna to another food item in my presence, I will separate you from the male parts you are no doubt unjustly proud of and cast them into the river. I cannot abide such a sickening and childish display of prurient interest. If you wish to court this woman again, I suggest you contemplate a less puerile course!"
A few other women at the bar clapped, which Selene didn't know what to make of, but it apparently worked as a threat because George stammered a breathless response, called her a female dog, and disconnected at once.
Her reflection couldn't help but snicker. "I will never get tired of you yelling at people, Lady Selene, but I'm going to get an undeserved reputation at this rate. Could you check my messages, please? I want to make sure I didn't miss something important."
Letting Moira show her how to do that, she searched through missed calls, texts, and voicemails. Two phone numbers popped up most frequently. "It looks like you have quite a few missed calls from people named Gaines, both Aisha and Jaime. Are those clients?"
Her reflection frowned, moving in the seat to get a better look. "No, those are my cousins. It's not like them to blow me up like that. Could you put on one of the—right, that." She nodded as Selene played the most recent voicemail.
"C'mon, Luna!" a girl's voice said. "Answer the damned phone! We need your help. Stop ignoring us! We already tried July, June, and April, but the wyrd sisters are out for the week! Our friend, the one with the weird dreams we've been trying to talk to you about, is the real deal. If you can't help, at least tell us!"
Ice worked its way down Selene's borrowed spine. In an instant, her connection to fate lit up with a powerful tingling and wave of nausea, and her vision tunneled as the shock nearly sent her tumbling from Luna's body.
Of course it would be closer than she expected; the connections had been tight. Tartarus take her—they'd been right under her nose.
She gripped the table, breathing heavily, and met her reflection's eyes. "Where?"
Her reflection clutched her chest, shaking with the near separation. "I've got their house's location saved on my phone. It's right around the corner."
Grabbing her purse, she gestured Moira up. "With haste, disciples. Our quarry nears!" Moira barely had time to throw a few bills on the table before running out after her.
The parts of Philadelphia Selene had become familiar with never seemed to experience much beauty in winter. From what she'd gathered, a terrible curse known as "global climate change" gripped the planet and gravely harmed its natural cycles. Under the same gray overcast from the previous day, they marched up to a little house and rang the doorbell.
Though the neighborhood bore the weight of some general depression that pressed over Selene's magical senses, there was an air about the home that defied it and comforted her. Fresh pumpkins even lined the fence despite the distance from their version of Nightmare Night. Yet, despite the uncommon cheer, a thread of worry worked its way into her.
The missing pony wasn't there.
A middle aged gentleman with features similar to her host's opened the door and smiled widely. "Luna! How is my favorite niece?" He scooped her into a warm embrace. "You should have called! We've got some leftover creole crab stew Lacy whipped up. Even some vegetarian stuff." He glanced over her shoulder as he stepped back, his tone a little less energetic. "Oh, and you brought Moira."
"Sup, Gaines." Moira grinned from the walk up. "We've missed you at the meetings. Kids running you ragged?"
"Hst, Moira." Selene prodded her shoulder. "Manners."
Luna's uncle looked between them with raised brows before shrugging and inviting them inside. A woman sang in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables, and there was a memory of magic in those words. Selene hoped that, one day, she could help people like her find the real power within them.
"I must apologize for the abruptness of my visit," she said, politely removing Luna's boots by the door. "Aisha and Jaime requested my presence."
"They're probably in the basement," her reflection said faintly from a large family photo on the wall. It held Luna herself as a younger woman, with her father and mother—Joachim Cabrera and Lobelia Gaines, from their conversations. "Second door on the right."
"I believe they're waiting for me in the basement," she added.
Understanding dawned on his face. "Is this about Owen? Sorry—apparently, she prefers a different name now."
"Light," the mare in the kitchen called. "Poor kid. Odd name, but who am I to judge? She's been through enough."
It would never cease to be strange to Luna that they referred to their children as goats. "Yes, I believe so. They aren't here, are they?"
"No. We were hoping, but she didn't come home with the kids today."
"May I?" She gestured to the door in question and pulled Moira along as they nodded, and shut the door behind her. They gave her weird looks, but she would have to correct their misapprehension another time.
Three children were deep in conversation when she arrived, listening to music playing from a stereo as they conspired in the dim room.
Of them, two reminded her instantly of the vespers from home, though she knew they weren't the same. Luna carried a bit of that nature herself, and she suspected that it was some mirrored quality. Even certain humans were drawn to the dark, it seemed. The third was a smaller, pale-skinned boy who seemed a little sad to her, like a candle flame threatening to gutter out. It was as though he'd only recently found some tenuous hope to keep his spirit from burning out.
As they looked up, their eyes widened. "Luna! Jesus Christ," the boy said. "You could have answered your phone. Hi, Moira."
"Have you come to help with our friend?" the girl asked, hopping to her feet.
Double-checking to be sure the door remained shut, she turned to them. "I have indeed, children, but I am not your cousin. My name is coincidentally Luna, yes, but I am not from your world. There, I am known as the Princess of the Night, the Warden Moon, and I am riding your cousin Luna for the express purpose of helping your friend. As a goddess of my people, I am bound to aid her, and I would be most grateful for your assistance in finding her."
Selene fully anticipated the same doubt she'd received since arriving and braced to further elaborate, but the siblings merely exchanged a glance before nodding. "Princess Luna of Equestria, huh?" The boy rose to his feet and bowed. "Well, we weren't expecting anything like this, but we'll take it."
"I guess there goes all my remaining skepticism." The girl huffed. "I'm glad someone knows what the hell is going on, though. Sorry, was that inappropriate around a princess? Light Breeze didn't seem to know the proper etiquette. Should I bow?" She settled for extending a hand.
"What?" Moira hissed, looking between the kids. "You little twerps knew what was going on this whole time?" She rolled her eyes to the ceiling, uttering a prayer.
Luna clapped her hands together. "What a joy to be comprehended at last!" She swept forward, skirts swaying, and struck her hand against hers as if it had been an extended hoof. "Are you… Jaime, young mare?"
She stared at her hand for a moment. "Uh—I'm Aisha, he's Jaime." She thumbed at the darker-skinned youth.
"The Princess Luna?" Tim's eyes widened as he stared up at her, and he held his bag in white-knuckled hands. "It can't be. How are you even here?"
Crouching down before him with her hands on her knees—she was becoming almost proud of how well she could use Luna's form after a day of practice—Selene smiled and met his eyes. "That I am, and I will explain. What is your name, child?"
"T-Tim." He couldn't look away, his eyes losing themselves in hers. She could almost see his little fire grow. It reminded her of Moira in a way, of someone who had been burned by the world. Their souls were blackened like dry wood with cynicism, and to coax out a few silver shoots of hope in a child was Selene's greatest delight. "I don't understand. I just… it seemed so… so unreal. You and your sister ruling for thousands of years and creating such a perfect world. Something like that can't be real."
It was like Moira, in a way. The people of their world had been conditioned not to believe in wonder.
"Approaching perfection." Taking his hands in hers, squeezing them until they relaxed, she kept her eyes on his. "One thousand and change is the span my sister has guided our people in. Once, they had been as violent and ignorant as almost anything I've seen here, but even hardened hearts can soften with the right touch. Look deep into my eyes, child, and set your doubts aside."
For all that a seed of bitter disappointment with the world had sprouted in Tim's heart—the seed that would one day turn his dreams as dim as any of those she saw in the astral world—he was younger than Moira, and he could more readily believe with the right prompting. Selene drew on her true self, letting it rise to the surface, and tears sprang into his eyes until they blurred and could look no longer. The fire of hope, stoked, burned away his doubts.
"Princess, I…" he wept. "I don't know what to say. I'm… oh, God in heaven, I feel so…"
She rose and hugged his head to her waist as he threw his arms around her. The two other kids gaped at Tim as though they'd never seen him before. Moira didn't look at them, but Selene caught a green streak of jealousy in her eyes.
Addressing the siblings, she touched the girl's shoulder. "This lost pony—Light Breeze, I believe you said—is she well? Where is she?"
"I'm afraid she had to go home. Can we slow down? I feel lost, and this whole—" she flapped her hands at the room "—scenario is making my head spin."
"You and me both, kid." Moira folded her arms and flopped onto a patched couch by a much more familiar kind of television.
"Of course." Selene touched her free hand to her heart and inclined her head. "Forgive me. Moira and I had forgotten decorum in our eagerness." She ignored Moira's aggrieved noises. "I can give a full explanation in time, but for Light Breeze's sake I will be brief, and we can fill the gaps in one another's understanding of events at the earliest opportunity. I sensed ill portents in my nightly patrol of dreams, and detected a powerful nightmare without a dream present. I followed the signs, and they led me to your world. I looked in dreams close to the source and found your cousin meditating, and then entered her body to politely request assistance. After some—well, dare I say, fruitless searching—I belatedly received your call for aid and came at once. It was a foolish oversight on my part to neglect family, given that I could tell Luna had close connections to the afflicted."
"This is some straight modern fantasy right here," Aisha whispered, a little dazed. "Is Luna—sorry, I mean, our cousin Luna—okay?"
"Yes, of course. A little weary for bearing me for so long, but she should be all right. It would be wise to see to her after I leave tonight, and a few offerings would not be remiss for her trials."
Selene squeezed Tim about the shoulders as he calmed. "Feeling better?"
"Y-yes, Princess." He hiccuped and stepped back, wiping his red eyes with tissue Jaime provided him. He gazed up at her in reverent awe.
"I'm glad." She turned to take all of them in. "If you have been reassured of my good faith, please, where can I find Light Breeze? It's critical I reach her as soon as equinely possible. She's in terrible danger."
"Danger?" the siblings asked in unison, eyes widening.
"What's wrong, Princess Luna?" Tim asked.
Jaime clutched his sister's hand in fright. "Is something going to happen to her tonight? Oh, gods, I knew we shouldn't have let her go home…"
"Still your terror, young stallion," she said with a soft nicker, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm. "I did not mean to frighten you. I don't think the danger is imminent, but I won't know for sure until I find them. It's a little hard to explain, but this unnatural condition cannot endure. Souls were never meant to shuttle back and forth across the abyss of worlds nightly nor take two bodies, and, though it seems they've been stable for a long time, there are recent signs of serious instability and growing damage. That's to the substrate of dreams, and I dare not imagine what it's doing to her."
Aisha swallowed. "Well, we shouldn't wait around then, huh?"
Jaime grabbed his coat. "We can explain what we know on the way. It's not far." He skid to a halt, eyes wide. "Wait! The journals!"
"Pardon?" Selene asked.
"Light Breeze gave us like, a million journals of her time on the other side." He galloped back to his bed, stuffing notebooks into a backpack and hurrying to join. "It's how we know so much about Equestria." He frowned at the bed. "I'm missing some."
"I've got them!" Tim held up his bag.
"They may prove useful, then. Good thinking." Selene's borrowed heart thundered in her chest as Moira and she joined them upstairs, sparing a quick word to their parents in passing before racing out into the cold.
"So, uh… Princess?" Jaime stared up at her as he trotted along. Tim kept as close as decorum would allow, like a lost duckling. "It's kinda weird calling you Luna, you know, considering."
"Selene will do while on your world. It was one of my old names."
"Lady Selene to you squirts," Moira said, bringing up the rear. "Only I get to call her on a first name basis."
Selene didn't quite agree, but she had bigger issues. "Please, tell me what you know."
"Right, Lady Selene." Aisha kept up with her longer strides, leading the way down the cracked and broken street, with its row of depressed houses, most of which sat behind chain link fences. "We've known Light Breeze since forever, though until today she's always gone by Owen, and we thought she was a boy."
"Yeah," Jaime added, hopping over a sidewalk slab that had been shattered in two by a tree root. "She decided she was transgender. Do you have that in Equestria?"
"Not by that word, but I can guess. We normally correct their bodies with unicorn magic relatively young." Selene frowned. "The mismatch is worse than I thought. How did the issue manifest, to the best of your knowledge?"
"I mean, we don't really know, Princess?" Tim shook his head. "All her life, apparently. Every time they sleep, they switch places. Or, well, continue where they left off from last time. We thought she might be, uhm, discordant, but her journals were such powerful evidence."
"Yeah!" Aisha continued as they rounded the corner at the end of the lane onto a busy street with cars crowding the road and dingy stores under equally bleak apartments. "Back on Halloween, though, or Nightmare Night, we encouraged her to try remembering her dreams more, and the next morning she woke up thinking she was Light Breeze!"
Jaime nodded. "But they may really be the same, we kinda figured out?"
"She started wanting to be Light Breeze full time! I hope we didn't mess her up…"
Selene patted Aisha's head, something that would have reassured a foal. "Deep breaths, please. I tell you this truly: if they do as you say, nothing you did could have changed them. I can explain more once she is secure." They paused in front of one of the many bleak apartment buildings, and Selene frowned up at it as a tingle passed through her feet. Her subject had passed in and out of it many times.
Jaime held the door open. "Well, there is at least one other thing you should know before we get there, Lady Selene." He looked downcast and furious both as they moved into the tiny lobby, with a filthy manager’s office off to one side and a tiny elevator near the end. "Her parents on this side… they don't treat her right."
"I'm sorry?" she paused at the elevator, Moira pressing the button to call it.
"Yeah." Aisha shook her head, braided hair flying. "It's sick. Her dad doesn't like the way she talks and acts, so he hits her. Her mom doesn't do a thing."
"They're pretty terrible to everyone, Princess." Tim bunched his hands in his coat pockets. "I know they say anti-semitic things about me behind their backs, but they treat Light worse."
Selene's temper had been a thing of infamy long before resentment for her thankless tasks and sister's thoughtlessness had boiled over into the fury of a nightmare. Ponies still tended to run screaming when she lost it. It took all of the effort and training she had practiced since to not frighten the children as they stepped into the elevator and waited. Moira even put a hand on her arm, and she let that steady her just that once. Even so, she had the bit in her teeth as they approached the apartment door, and her knock thundered.
Tim and the siblings lurked a door down, looking at the two women. "They don't like us." Jaime shook his head. "Remember, you're here for Owen Hall!"
"I most certainly am not," Selene hissed back, but quieted as the door opened to reveal a shorter woman with blond hair tied back. She looked so wan and hollowed out that it took Selene a moment to perceive that she had given birth to the dreamer on Earth. Behind her, the apartment had a faded brick wall on one side and old paneling on the other, with a tiny, tiled kitchenette behind a counter. Furniture was scattered around, but, while it felt lived in, she would be hard pressed to say it held any love at all.
"What do you want?” She met Selene’s eyes and then Moira’s challengingly. “Are you Jehovah's Witnesses? We've already got a lord, thanks."
Selene’s unseen senses lit with dark fire. The room behind her had held her quarry until quite recently, and the stench of violence done to the innocent clung like soot to the surfaces of the house and the woman alike. Her enforced calm grew a crack. She smoothed down the dress Luna had worn that day—the lowest key one she owned, with stockings against the cold—and bared her teeth in a smile.
"Hello," Moira said in a cheerful tone. "No, we're not here from Kingdom Hall. We're from St. Peter's on Third and Pine? Your boy, Owen, was asking about spiritual guidance. I thought we'd come have a talk with him and his parents."
Selene shot her an absolutely scandalized look and flared her nostrils. Moira's hand tightened, silently begging her not to attack.
"Owen?” Her head shook, doubt instantaneous. “Bullshit, he hasn't gone to church ever since he started screaming his head off as a kid." Her eyes narrowed. "You're with child services, aren't you? Get the hell out, both of you. This is harassment."
She made to slam the door in their faces, but Selene caught it with a hand and stopped it effortlessly. Strength surged through her as she prepared to thrust her way inside and destroy everything within, but she paused as Moira hissed and tried to drag her arm back. She might as well have been fighting a steel piston, her shoes scrabbling on the thin carpet, but Selene held still regardless. "You're going to land your host’s ass in jail!" she whispered hotly.
The woman pounded on the door a couple times to no effect, even when she slammed her entire weight into it. "Hey! Let go, or I'm calling the police!"
After a moment's thought, Selene did, and took a second to breathe as the door slammed shut with a heavy rattle as the woman found the irresistible pressure suddenly gone. "Fine. Punishment can come later." She stalked off after Jaime and Aisha. "You and I are going to have a serious talk about proper decorum, young lady. Never falsely represent me as coming from another princess's auspices again. Your lack of honesty does us all a disservice."
Moira flinched back from her and nodded; she even seemed genuinely regretful, so Selene cooled off quickly. The children stared up in quiet awe, and she exhaled the heated energy from her body. "How are we going to find the kid now, Selene?" Moira asked, a little heavy. "Unless you can pull it from her mind or something."
"Not likely. Can you two reach your friend with your smartphones?" Selene asked the children in a relaxed tone.
They shook their heads, lifting their phones. "No, Lady Selene." Aisha tapped at the screen where a profile for Light Breeze#7065, with an image of a pegasus in flight, rested next to a gray, empty circle. "She's been offline all day, and she doesn't have service. What should we do? Maybe we should go back and try to, uh… I dunno, get it out of her."
"I could hardly torture it out of her even if I had a mind to. Mind-reading is presently outside my reach and can be a dicey operation even under ideal circumstances." Selene smiled and patted both of them on the heads. "Worry not. May I see the journals?"
They made their way down to the dirty lobby by way of the elevator, and Tim was the first to eagerly offer up his backpack there. Taking the journals, she rapidly flipped through the entries. "My, she's quite accomplished at sketch work." She absorbed them, gleaning key bits of information with great speed. Equestria was big enough to have more than one Light Breeze, possibly even more than one in Fillydelphia, but only one would have the same family and neighborhood. "Moira? Please take Luna under the shoulders. I don't want her to hit her head."
"Wait!" Tim grabbed her hand, eyes wide. "You aren't leaving already, are you, Princess?"
"Yes, but I will return, child. I swear it." Selene squeezed it, then passed the journals into his care. "You need not endure long without my aid."
"I don't get it." Jaime peered back up at her as Moira quickly moved in for support. "What are you going to do, then, Lady Selene?"
She smiled mysteriously. "Everypony has to sleep sometime."
With that, Luna's eyes rolled back in her head as the breath of Selene's spirit left her body.
The material world fell away around Selene, and the crumbling horror of Earth's dreamscape reasserted itself. As she lingered on the threshold of her mind, Selene whispered back to the flickering light that was Luna the Witch's soul. "I'm terribly sorry, but I must hurry. I fear what may happen to Light Breeze if I tarry longer. Will you be ready to receive me tomorrow?"
Luna's mind pulsed with an alabaster light, and she squeaked sleepily. "I'll do my best, Princess."
Selene caressed her once before lighting off back to the dark moon, the other face to Gaia's bright warden. She didn't fully understand the nature of the difference in time between the two realms, but the very last thing she could afford to be was late. Some quiver in her heart told her that time was running short for Light Breeze, and somepony had to catch her before she fell forever into darkness.
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Is Light Breeze related to Fluttershy?
10513311
Not likely. Fluttershy is from Cloudsdale, while Light Breeze's pegasus family comes from islands in the southeast of Equestria. They lived close to the water rather than to the clouds in the sky.
Why do you ask?
3/4 done, already? But.. But there are so many unanswered questions! And potentialities! And this is such a fantastic story so far it can't be that close to being over already!
10513474
Aww, thank you! You always know you're doing something right when someone is sad that it's getting close to over.
It might be more accurate to say that we're leaving Act 2 for Act 3, and the final portion of the story. That could take a while.
Typo.
Discussing my thoughts on Frank at length aren't really the kind of thing I'd do in a comments section - it's heavy stuff. For what it's worth though, I feel that he's well written.
Looking forward to what comes next, as always.
10513521
I have fixed it!
10513474
10513311
What are all of your thoughts on the chapter so far? Details~
10513474
10513488
Technically, Act 2 doesn't end until chapter 9.
I am really tickled that Selene knows about engines, batteries, and the like. I wouldn't think they had much need for them, seeing as the few devices I can think of from the show that were more than purely mechanical tended to be unicorn-powered. Things are just similar enough that Selene comprehends that certain items and functionalities must exist, but not quite enough to know how to use them. "Fish out of water" stories can be entertaining, but this is making me realize that an "octopus out of water" might be even more entertaining - it's a creature that really doesn't belong on land, but can absolutely find a way to move around when it finds itself there, and is really funny to watch.
10513716
Hahaha yeah that's clever. Like an octopus, she is indeed very clever and quick to adapt to her situation.
I figure that Equestria isn't all that far behind, they're an industrial nation. They got steam engines, we know - and the internal combustion engine was invented 150+ years ago, long before it was actually useful. Electricity hundreds of years ago. If Luna's a clever little machine-lover who built a castle full of ridiculous Home Alone traps 1000 years ago, and she's an eternally young goddess, I figure she can work out contemporary machines.
10513716
It's a recurring element in Ether's stories that 'Selene' is enamored of all sorts of devices, based on stuff from the diary of the two sisters publication, and the episode concerning their first castle, which was riddled with traps. Selene is basically the version of Fred from Mystery Inc., and probably also has a subscription to Trap Builder's monthly.
I seem to remember us including an idle mention previously in this story, that one of Luna's rooms was filled with little bits of machinery.
Regardless, yeah, she can more or less determine what part is doing what, with most things, and batteries aren't a foreign concept to her.
10513732
10513716
I think that might have been another story, but you might be right yeah. I'd have to go back and check.
There's the crux of Frank's argument, and he just can't understand that "better" doesn't mean "good." Light doesn't have his context for a more abusive parent. Indeed, her only other experience is with kinder families. He is literally the worst father she knows.
He means well, but this isn't turning the corner. This is trying to do the Akira motorcycle scene in a semi trailer. There's too much momentum in the problematic direction, and even if there weren't, this is not a method that will accomplish the desired goal.
Fascinating insight into this model of magic. (And it's kind of embarrassing how my usual is literally what Selene/Luna dismisses out of hand.
)
A novel yet relatable expression of the human condition.
There's a special kind of joy in Luna delivering Shakespeare-tier insults.
So close, and yet so far...
Well, it should be easier to track down Light given all of that data, but the question is what could befall her in the meantime. And the time differentials involved could lead to some issues of their own. Perils threaten from all sides. We'll see where this goes from here.
10513854
Ha ha yeah
I try to consciously move away from the mechanical model of magic to one that existed (and still exists for a huge number of believers) before industrialization taught us all to view everything as an engine. I feel like the purely mechanical model does magic a disservice by turning it into yet another engineering endeavor to be dissected, torn apart, and alienated from the people it matters to. It also becomes a tool of the elites very easily.
It's meant to be a kind of contrast within Selene, too - she's someone who can see both through the analytical lens of a scientist, but also the emotional and figurative (and very lunar) lens of a poet. Twilight Sparkle isn't the princess of magic because she's the smartest, least biased science pony - that was Starswirl, and that's why he failed his final test - but because she was willing to work on her emotional and social intelligence as well.
Friendship is Magic - or, stated differently, love is grace.
"with photos of the local environment that didn't feature a large window covering the corner"
...Did something go wrong with the text there, or am I just really failing to parse that?
"His touch mare her skin"
"His touch made her skin"?
"Neon signs glowed in her short, frizzy mane like a halo."
...Neon signs in her hair? Are these some sorts of hair ornaments I'm completely unfamiliar with, or... what?
Also, if the former, how do they work? I'm curious.
"shattered in two by a tere troot."
"shattered in two by a tree root."?
"tiled kitchenette behind a kitchenette."
I'm guessing that there's some typo there, and not that the apartment has two kitchenettes next to each other?
"while it felt lived it, she"
"while it felt lived in, she"?
Well, that chapter ending isn't ominous at all, is it? :D
re the author's note:
Oh, wow, we're that far in already? For some reason I was feeling like it'd be longer. Still, with things now coming together, it does make sense, aye. :)
"Writing for "Selene" is fun. She's a very passionate pony princess."
:D
Glad you're enjoying that.
10513996
Oh! Right, and I thought of it during the chapter but apparently forgot to mention it before being reminded by FOME's comment and your reply to it: I liked the magic worldbuilding. :)
I also liked your elaboration in the comment. :D
(Including the bits regarding Selene, Twilight, and Starswirl, to be clear. :))
(And aye: magic not as direct manipulation of matter and energy (which, don't get me wrong, can still be great fun in stories when well-used... but it's nice to see this, too :)) but as something akin to the art and science, for the creatures of this Gaia and like worlds perhaps more, of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will -- including the consciousness of differently-embodied beings with different capabilities. The difference between levitating a rock by forcing it up and levitating a rock by asking in the right way the relevant parts of the universe for it rise. With a sufficiently magical world, species, and culture, many applications may sink below the level of art and science to honed natural capacities and deeply ingrained cultural elements, related to relating deeply to the universe as a living being that can do a variety of things if asked politely and in friendship.
Or perhaps the comparison is not quite that close, but still, something more akin to that than, say, "setting the tiny-billiard-ball-thaums in motion".)
10513488
Oh! Well, I'm not complaining about getting more of this story either. :)
10515178
Typos corrected and re-uploaded.
.
The neon signs in the bar
In this case, not exactly!
They still intersect with conventional forces, but you might view the underlying magical quality as a privilege more than anything else. They use a force to lift the rock, yes, but the thing that grants them the power to move that rock isn't a battery of X joules of magical energy that translates into Y watts. The magical privilege of their particular kind lets them defy the universe. Everyone (in concert with their environment) has a certain numinous quality that is focused in a particular direction and can be grown over time and with practice and exploring one's connection to their own divine self.
Everyone's capabilities are different, but their strength in the moment often depends not just on their talents and skills but on emotion, their connection to the subject, what it matters in a metaphysical and personal sense, etc.
Put another way, the world isn't necessarily animistic, but magic is an emotive and highly subjective power. "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." Numinous and with authority over the world's powers.
Not that the animistic model can't be cool in its own right, mind.
10515252
[checks through]
Ah, thanks! That's much clearer in a number of cases, though, uh...
"shattered in two by a tree troot"
"shattered in two by a tree root"? Or is a "troot" actually a thing?
Thanks. That makes more sense. :D
Hmmm. I don't think I fully understand from that, but thank you for the elaboration! I suspect it might require significantly more explanation and or contemplation to fully grasp your idea, though, unless I'm just currently not seeing some key piece of it around which the rest would crystallize. Oh well; perhaps later. :)
"Not that the animistic model can't be cool in its own right, mind."
Right. :)
10515349
Fixing that in a second as well.
At the risk of using a bad example, imagine elevated user privileges over an aspect of the universe. Then discard that example because it's misleading, but maintain the idea of having greater command over some aspect of creation than others.
Pegasi, for instance, channel authority over the skies (or water) and manifestations of weather. It manifests through some familiar scientific means like lift and pressure and so on, but they never "run out". They may grow tired of exerting themselves and fatigued from using their muscles, just as a unicorn may become weary of controlling supernatural forces and channeling with their horn as with any long and complicated task, but their connection to the universe never weakens.
It's even clearer when it comes to their cutie marks, which are an aspect of the universe in which they have divine providence within.
10515386
No problem.
I'm not sure what you mean by "running out", but otherwise, I think that explanation did significantly improve my understanding; thank you!
So... Hm.
So, for example, a unicorn levitating a rock. I'm not sure what sort of "bigness" (Mass? Volume? Age? Complexity?) is most important for that (possibly it varies from pony to pony), but presumably "bigger" rocks are more difficult to lift than "smaller" ones, and doing the same things with them requires more magic. The ability of a unicorn to apply that magic would vary with a number of factors, including personal magical strength, exercise, etc., but in large part on their... degree or harmonization with the universe and their fellow sapients, which would effectively produce... less resistance?
Is that closer?
10516634
My sister is not exactly making this easy to understand unless you already know her beliefs on things and can thus decode what she is trying to say. As it stands, one moment she's making a reference to the force in Star Wars, the next she's kind of dancing with a brand of Thaumaturgy in which we are all gods. (And thus invoke ourselves)
The reality of the situation is this, at least in this particular story: Divine is the incorrect word to use. It is an important distinction to make, because in our world the divine is a source of hope and longing. Whatever religion or spirituality you are following, it provides the possibility that there is something beyond the alienating universe we find ourselves in. (The alternative to this, in most cases, is animism, or 'finding the divine in the terrestrial world'. EtherEchoes falls most closely under the auspices of Gnosticism, though, so that is almost never going to be the case for her.)
The Universe of Gaia is almost more of a world than it is a proper universe like the one we live in. It is a realm, similar in essence to the nine realms that occupy the branches of the tree in Norse mythology. The way I explained it to her, the best contemporary example would be Creation from from Exalted. It's "flat" (but not really, because it's not a flat plane floating out in space), the sun and the moon are cosmological forces, but they are not celestial spheres controlled by the forces of physics and other natural laws, the way they are in our universe. There is no 'edge of the map' but the further out you venture, the more nebulous the world becomes, and pockets of chaos do exist (such as in the Everfree Forest). Instead of elemental poles, Equestria has the Tree of Harmony.
Unlike humans, who for the most part understand they are material beings occupying a material universe. Ponies do not need to request the intercession of 'Divine Beings'. They are not material beings occupying a material universe, their world simply manifests qualities similar to being in a material universe. As another example, you might have a grasp of things when you're awake, how your body works, how it interacts with the universe around you, but when you dream you are not a material being in the context of the dream. The dream is something else, and any similarities you experience between the dream and the waking world is the result of the dream manifesting similar qualities. When you are in the dream, things act according to their nature, and a thing's nature is something 'essential' to it.
The point I'm trying to make, is that Harmony isn't the 'source of magic' the way my sister seems to be describing. It's why I keep trying to slip in little mentions that magic can be performed even if a pony experiences its absence. This is why dark magic exists, and it's why beings like Chrysalis exist. The central role of Harmony in Equestria is that it keeps the world... harmonious. This is why, when Light Breeze perceives the lack of harmony in her life, her personality and identity are in flux. More than order, harmony allows for change. More than chaos, harmony allows for stability. When Light Breeze acts in accordance with harmony, she is her best and most content self.
Divine Providence kind of pre-supposes that there is some form of divine guidance shaping everything everypony is and can or can't do. Sometimes that is true in her stories, but in this one I don't believe there is, we certainly never discussed it. Which is another reason saying it is 'the divine part of every pony' is a mistake. Equestria is not given to dualism. Ponies are not material beings with something more inside of them. The world of Equestria is magic, and so are the ponies. It's not a carefully tended garden, at some point, ponies and other sapient forms of life came about, through one means or another, and they (at least, the ponies have) have decided that harmony is a concept worth manifesting in their world. Each of them has unique tools suited to the task of spreading 'harmony'.
A pegasus's magic comes from the self, it does not come from harmony. Some Finnish shamans have described 'knowing the name' of different natural phenomenon in a very visceral way, one in which the 'name' is largely metaphorical, it simply refers to possessing an intimate knowledge of storms, or lightning, or earthquakes and famine. Even this is more removed from what a pegasus experiences. They don't just know the storm's name - they are the storm. The storm is in their blood. For a pegasus, they are actively related to the sky. Likewise, earth ponies are related to the earth (this doesn't necessarily mean they can magically grow things the way some head-canons argue, we generally don't use that. That's more of a cutiemark thing.), and they draw their strength and tenacity from said earth. A unicorn, meanwhile, is related to the heavens, that aspect of the world above that goes beyond the sky. It is why unicorns - especially mountain dwelling unicorns - so often have celestial sounding names: Twilight Sparkle, Moondancer, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, etc.
Arguably, 'telekinesis' is the most common magic learned by unicorns, because unicorns have an inherent quality that makes them view themselves as 'the center' of any given situation. Unicorns commanded the heavens before Celestia and her sister did, and the heavens move relative to Equestria, not the other way around. So, when a unicorn is using their magic to move objects respective to themselves, this is what they are essentially doing, just on a far more minor scale. (It is also, I would argue, why they can't grab an object with their magic and then pull themselves along with magical force, though Starlight seems to have learned the trick of using her magic to move herself around directly, and of course, Twilight can teleport.)
Any other applications of unicorn magic are a continuation of that principle, as most humans do not dive deep into hard sciences and learn to make their own engines, many unicorns do not learn half of what their magic is capable of doing, the way Twilight Sparkle did. It might be possible for pegasai and earth ponies to 'push the envelope' of what they can do, as well. Though the only instances of that we see are Cadance, vaguely, in the Crystal Heart Spell.
Harmony does exist, and has helped make of Equestria a relatively stable world that most ponies can enjoy, but it is not 'the force pulling the strings'. Ponies had a longing for it in their hearts, and through communal action, bring harmony into the world, but the harmony they desire isn't just a passive force, either. Arguably the existence and growing presence of the alicorns in their world is a sign that their belief in the righteousness of harmony is vindicated - hurdles like Nightmare Moon or no. Even a pony's cutiemark isn't 'bestowed upon them'. It represents the moment, a coming of age, when their choices and inherent personality are woven together into a solid, coherent identity. If the cutiemark were some divine principle it could not be changed to the extent we have seen it change in the past.
Anyway, hope this answers all of your questions to your satisfaction.
10516946
10516634
In my defense, I've been barely coherent the last few days (which is why there will be no update Friday. I haven't finished Chapter 9 and frankly it might be a while; my weekend is gon' be busy.)
You are correct, there is no providence here. The closest thing may be the connection to fate that ponies like Luna and Celestia have, and even that might better be described as "If things proceed as they are" rather than "things must proceed this way."
Her explanation is correct, as usual.
10516946
Ah, thank you very much! Okay, while still not completely sure (it's a fairly complicated topic, after all), I am now feeling much more confident in my understanding of this.
"Though the only instances of that we see are Cadance, vaguely, in the Crystal Heart Spell."
Hm. I think I'd argue that the sonic rainboom is also at least a definite candidate there. It's an extreme and rarely-achieved use of a pegasus's abilities and interaction with the sky to enter a sort of transcendent state with a variety of exotic effects, after all.
10517069
Ah, sorry about that; I hope you get some appropriate rest and/or relaxation soon.
The connection to fate? Sorry if I'm just forgetting something here.
Ah, thanks for the confirmation. :)
10518182
Ie, they are somewhat prophetic.
10518182
As Jachra said, Celestia is shown to have prophetic visions in place of dreams sometimes. Her headcanon presumes that alicorns in general experience such things. It's kind of part and parcel to the whole 'divine king' package.
It's certainly a possibility, it's a shame the show never takes it anywhere ever again.
10518182
I would basically agree with that point, aye. I can imagine others as well, which may come up in this.
Hell, River Wind's whole thing is from an old idea I had that pegasi could be just as adept in water as in air.
10518676
Beyond the "minor" hurdle that they can't breathe in it.
10519038
Haha yes, aside from that.
Solana is the best at untangling my high level ideas.
10518414
Ah, thanks.
10518640
Thanks. :)
("Jachra", I'm guessing (if I'm not forgetting something), is another name of Ether Echoes?)
"It's certainly a possibility, it's a shame the show never takes it anywhere ever again."
You mean the rainboom itself, or other examples of such magic?
Though either way, I think it could have been nice to see more, aye.
10518676
Thanks. And aye, there are a lot more such things that can be imagined, I think; I'm just not thinking of much from the show itself.
Oh, neat. :)
10519038
10519049
Hah. :D
Glad you two can work together, then. :)
Though... given what we were just talking about, I could see some universes having the ability to breathe in water as one of those high-end applications of pegasus magic. After all, pegasus magic can move water, pegasus magic can move air, pegasus magic can work with lightning... put them together in the right way (a number of possible right ways, probably), and I could see it working.
Though as even just Earth cetaceans show, there's a whole lot that can be done just with held breath, too! :D
10519591
"I think you mean Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)? .. unless I am being dumb and missed a play on words..."
My understanding, from the context, is that it was a joke based on the analogous role established between the mitochondria and the pneuma, suggesting in jest that the analog to the former's ATP was adenosine trithaumate (the named based on the common idea of "thaums" as a type of magic particle).
10520133
Even better, I always considered the Griffons / Griffonstone seen in the series to be sort of based around German culture (if loosely)
10519591
It was a joke, that's why their term includes the word 'thaum', in it, which was Greek for 'miracle'. Thaumaturgy and various permutations is common parlance for magic.
10519670
EtherEchoes has tons of names, so do I. We're mages that way.
I mean the rainboom and how it's only ever revisited in a Back to the Future scenario, and to blow up a shack for Apple Jack's convenience. But yes, I'm a sucker for apotheosis stories, so seeing more if it would have been nice.
In Through the Well of Pirene, Celestia and Luna's mother is Theia, a goddess of the sea. She likely could breathe underwater just fine. If a Pegasus were to figure out the trick in any of our stories, they would very likely already be alicorns, or on the verge of becoming such.
Pegasai like Light Breeze's mother can probably hold their breath for unusually long periods of time. But so can humans who have trained for it.
10520191
Yes, that's so. River Wind can probably hold her breath for around twenty to thirty minutes, which is a lot for a human but less so for a creature that is so potently magical.
And yeah I'm totally certain Theia in Pirene can just breathe water indefinitely :D
10519591
Ah I knew I must have missed some kind of joke there
Thanks for explaining
10520221
Ah a fellow pony of culture!
"Selene" is my favorite character :-) you perfectly balance her 1000+ years of experience/wisdom and just plain naivety of simple things in the human realm.
Cant wait for the next chapter Ether
10520279
Haha yes. Solana is the one who introduced me to that series, after all.
10520293
Yeah, I love writing for Selene. Thank you!
10520279
"Culture" might be a bit of a overemphasis, I used to read absolutely every fantasy book, I could get my hands on Ann Pierce, Anne McCaffrey, Robin Hobb, Brian Jacques, Brian Sanderson, Robert Jordan.. nothing was safe, but yes I really did enjoy Ann Pierce and I should read her books again.
10520310
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ah-i-see-youre-a-man-of-culture-as-well
10520324
Oh, I have got to keep that meme tabbed :-)
On a side note it seems that Ether gets a lot of inspiration and support from you.
It is nice seeing family that is close.
10520339
I write some of the stuff, too! For instance, as she mentioned the section with Frank at the Prancing Pony was entirely me.
10520412
I know that :-) of which I loved Jonah's character, seems like a good friend that would keep you in line, even if he has to kick your ass to do it.
I'm completely enamored with Princess Luna/Selene, her energy is infectious and I found myself fist-pumping with delight several times over the course of these recent chapters. I'm so happy for Tim!! And a little worried about Moira as well, but I have a feeling she'll be okay.
There's a lot I want to say about this fic so far, honestly I've been too engrossed in consuming it to really get my thoughts in order. What I can at least say is that it's touching me on a very personal level that I doubted I'd experience from a story I didn't write myself. As a relatively new dream journal keeper and budding witch/student of the various occults or what have you, not to mention a transgender woman and dysmorphic like young Light... it's been a powerful read. Nothing much to add other than godspeed and good luck finishing the story, and I hope you're both having a safe and relatively bearable Hell Year.
10558931
Thank you! I'm glad I could reach someone going through stuff like that! I'm transgender myself, and peripherally involved with various occult stuff.
Selene is very fun to write~