The Trinity of Moons: Mending Shards

by Cloud Ring

Chapter 58: Invitation

∿∿∿

Solid Line stepped forward.

"Listen... I have to operate on the assumption that in the future, there will be circumstances under which you will eventually agree to this request. Not because I know what you will decide, but because if you decide differently until the very end, then all of this was for naught. So I might as well bet on the events that at least have a chance of solving our issue.

"And so, on the assumption that such a future is possible, I would like to ask: to the best of your understanding right now, what conditions and information would be needed, upon being presented with which you would agree? Because if such a thing is possible, it is best to do it now, and not when the world shifts to the brink of being undone. And even without that, the Red made us fragile. Our team, except me, is cursed to die in the very near future unless we call for you."

Sunset interrupted her, narrowing her bright cyan eyes and looking straight at her, “This by itself could be a valid reason to deny your request, isn't it? It is not yours, after all; it belongs to… the thing, it’s not a matter I have been wrestling with the damned one for a very long time, trying to fix what it is doing. But to the point of your elaborate and polite question, for a start, it would really help if you were alive and had freedom of thought. I talked with the Red before… Let me check something first.” Sunset tilted her head, pointing her horn at Solid Line, and she reflexively raised her magic shield against a suspected attack. Sunset’s horn dimly gleamed with dark blue hue, all but fading to black; Solid read the pattern for the spell in weaving and dropped the shield and resistance. She felt a touch of a simple, harmless, scanning charm, performed in an incredibly ancient manner but nevertheless, fulfilling its function, and nothing else.

Solid allowed herself to be examined in more detail. The Word of Disentanglement in her head thought Sunset was a good target, but it was not too eager for release; the Red above was a much closer match for the matrix of properties.

The spell faded, and Solid politely clarified, "You tried to talk, and?.."

“It is not listening. It calls for union, says that I am a lost part and I need to return to my place. It has no arguments to convince me, and does not even try for it! I, as a pony with my own opinion, am as good as not even there! It does not matter what I would say — it keeps going on and on even if I say not a word in reply! Sometimes the dead come too...

Cursory twitched her ear, “I'm sorry, what? I must’ve misheard this.”

“The dead. Everypony who has died in my domain comes to me, and sometimes the Red manages to worm into their brains. Then I have to listen, once again, about how it thirsts for me. Nothing more.”

“Yes, I know how it feels!” Blacklight chimed in cheerfully, “Thirst and hate, it wanted to destroy us. And it was jealous of my Moon. Still, I think we have changed something. It spoke to us after all. It told us the story of its origin, showed what the world would be like after its victory—”

“No. You have changed next to nothing,” White Moon’s voice from the terminal could not be denied, and Blacklight cringed, drooping her ears and crouched down for a beat, “Immortals do not change. Time shapes them, and the shape becomes more and more rigid. Hatred cannot be healed with just one conversation, and a vengeful spirit will not stop burning just because you agreed to help it and sacrifice yourself. But after the synthesis—”

“—to which I do not agree!” Sunset interrupted, “It is much more powerful than me, and who do you think will fight it after it consumes me? You will? I have heard how very successful you are in this endeavour!”

“Maybe it wields more brute power than you,” Blue Moon said, Her voice flowing as a cosmic mist of Her mane, and clicks consonants added around a rephrased part of Sunset’s words, excessive in modern speech outside of an utterly formal style, were setting a rhythm for a song yet unborn; the stone that She held in Her magic field swayed along with it, “But you are more complex and graceful. You, a decent captive of your immortality, have much more than one sight ahead of you. Should you have the will for that, up to five aspects could very well be in your mastery; it seems likely that you inherited Sunset Shimmer’s ingenuity. The Red is hardly able to achieve mastery even over two aspects, even as it grabbed for herself that much more. Thus, I hope, and I will do everything possible for the sake of this coming to pass, that in the synthesis your personality will be the leading one. Your will and its power, in sum, is what a living Sunset could become, if—”

“But now it never will,” Black Moon intervened dryly, “The past cannot be repeated. The past cannot be resurrected in the present, the past failures cannot be undone, unless we make a new turn. We can work with the present and the future. Sunset, please listen — We do not know and cannot promise how the synthesis will unfold. We are products of synthesis, and We turned out to be much better for the world than your current split state. I do not know whether you will succeed. But if nothing is changed, the world will perish; right now seven ninths of the probabilities of the future are occupied by the war with the Red and the prevention of its victories, and Our inevitable defeat at the end of everything. This percentage is non-decreasing. If we change this, We can destroy the world a little faster. Or save it.”

Solid Line replied ahead of Sunset, who silently closed her open mouth, “Then, I think we will need another negotiator. The Red itself. Because right now You are repeating the past. You are too sure of the answer that it will give. You decide its fate. It does not matter whether your prediction is true or not. It does matter that You do not account for a possible mistake. and that nopony wants to ask the Red itself directly, and hear out its opinion on a synthesis. You see no futures except the ones that You make — and nopony but You. Please step back for a beat.”

A shadow passed over White Moon’s face; Black Moon, impassive as ever, nodded slightly; and Blue Moon, her ears down, was sad, almost crying, but did not object.

Then White Moon whispered, “Do not make Us guilty over Our decision of the past. You know nothing but bits and pieces that were chosen and supplied to direct your opinion on the matter.”

Sunset objected, “I do know the answer of the Red. I have heard this answer over and over again, and nothing but this answer.”

“Are you sure that what the Red said is exactly what you have heard?” Solid asked, trying to keep her mettle, and Black Moon nodded her approval again.

Sunset opened her lips to answer, but said nothing. Once again she tried to find the words; Solid took a step back and turned her head away to stop seeding doubt into Sunset’s mind. Sometimes this aspect of the Black Moon came into effect on its own, and Fluttershy, stirring in her soul, suggested that it was better to step back.

Finally, Sunset muttered, “Okay. It won't do any good, but... okay.”

There was a silence, and even the Moons did not interrupt it, the three of Them gathered at the edge of the crater whispering between themselves, with the voting stones still hung over the crater.

The silence continued; then Sunset asked, both mocking and anxious, "Now what?"; she looked at Gentle Touch at that, and smiled.

“What?” Gentle asked, “I will not summon the Red again.”

Plum smiled at her, “Me too. I know the recipe, but it won't work. We already called the Red for the conversation, and this conversation has already taken place. The option has expired.”

“I won't let you,” Storm grinned. “Not a chance. To summon the Red inside the shield, where it can figure out the principle? Just no.”

Everypony turned to the terminal, where Moons were listening intently.

“We cannot do what you ask for. We cannot even allow her to appear in the mirrors while We are nearby,” White Moon answered for the Trinity, “I still do not consider the Red a necessary negotiating party. I suggest the sane Sunset Shimmer to make a choice for herself on her own terms, and not to listen to the madness.”

Sunset repeated "On my own terms..." in a very quiet whisper. She flickered again, about to disappear, but Gentle turned to her and whispered at the same volume, “Please stay with us, do not repeat my mistakes. This is perhaps the most important choice in our history.”

She snorted but nodded; the flickering has stopped, “Passing the choice to you,” Sunset said with a grin.

“What do you mean?” Gentle asked warily.

“I mean, I can open the entrance for the Red — the another Red, not me — but you will become the entrance. Only you have its imprint on you, and only your blood has its traces,” Sunset pointed to Gentle's slightly discolored right side where the ray of the Red once touched her, “And only your color is close enough. Please, decide.”

Gentle looked around in dismay; Cursory immediately covered her with a wing and firmly said, “I go where you go! And, hear my voice — I am against, very, very against this idea, but if you go for it, then I am going with you.”

Gentle looked at Sunset, at Cursory; snuggled up to the pegasus. Nopony knew if she would refuse or not, until Plum, in three short jumps, appeared by her side, one step closer to Sunset, “You are messing up the laws of a tale. I am pink, don’t you see? And if you need to make a sacrifice, it should not be a couple in love. Somepony younger and not the most important for the plot should play a victim instead,“ Plum chirped, sipping orange juice from a glass with a straw, “Would you?” She offered a glass to Sunset, who reflexively stretched for it by her hoof and magic, and the glass did not fall to the floor; moreover, the sipped juice did not spill either, “What should I do for the sacrifice?”

Sunset laughed, “Well, you just ruined my plan: this pony would refuse, and I would say that you don’t need to summon the Red because you actually don’t want to. She knows that the Red will not return what it once claimed, and it definitely will not give up on a young and passionate living body.” Sunset winked at Gentle, and Gentle blushed.

“I would destroy any avatar entity as long as it is made by sacrifice,” the White Moon said in the same confident and powerful tone, “No negotiations should start with such an evil act.”

“And I wouldn’t let you go,” Dartline said quietly, without addressing anypony in particular, as this was already too rough a line. “You have had enough stupid risk already, and now discussing an actual sacrifice.”

Ignoring her, Plum Jam turned her body towards the terminal, “White Moon, Blue Moon, and Black Moon! You guard, comfort and direct us, so I am not asking you to do the impossible, but maybe before you dispose of the avatar, you will give the Red... well, for example, three times nine beats? So it will have a chance to say what it thinks about all this? Just a tiny delay. Is it possible?”

White Moon nodded, gravely, reluctantly, “I am at a loss what you want to achieve with this short time but I can grant you that, little pony.”

Plum rushed to Dartline and hugged her, "I'll be back! If not in this body so in another one, we will find each other, this is for sure. You will find everything and more than that, and I am not the most obscure pony!” And immediately to Sunset, “So what should I do?”

“It's simple,” Sunset smiled, “If you are willing and ready, when you come on dry land, put a clear mirror so that it reflects your own freely flowing blood. Make sure that it neither stops nor clots up. You need no words, just try to be conscious until the Red responds. It will respond; its thirst will overcome its resistance, and I don’t think there will be resistance to begin with. You will feel it. Next, let the flowing blood spill onto the mirror itself; note that for this phase the stream should be constant — open up your wounds if necessary. It will take your body, and I have no idea what will happen to your soul. When you are done talking, and if you want my afterlife, let your friends drown your remains — should your soul survive the infusion somehow, I will accept you there, as I have accepted many ponies before. Did I make myself clear?”

Plum smiled and nodded.

"But why are you giving us these... instructions?" Cursory asked, shuddering. "I thought you don't want to even hear about the Red, let alone summon it?"

Sunset was silent for a few beats, then replied, her voice full of quiet sadness, "My feelings aside, it seems you are going to great lengths to make the voice of the Red heard. I agree that everypony should have their word when their lives are at stake, even if it is the last one. So, I can't deny your goal is magnanimous, after all. It is up to you now to decide for yourself whether you are ready to follow up on it and pay the price."

Comments

[Numinos]

Ow, plot had gone to even more dark places than usual...