The Trinity of Moons: Mending Shards

by Cloud Ring

Chapter 60: Collision

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“Refrain from gestures too grand and decisions too influencing,” Sapphire added to nopony in particular, “You are talking on our channel: if the sensors detect excessive activity, there will be no time for me to react and prevent the shield from coming up, and you will lose the connection. Also, the entire conversation is being relayed to Purity. The unending one might also have a few wishes of her own, to be granted as payment for our help.”

“This possibility is already accounted for,” Black Moon replied calmly. "Purity, in turn, should know that she is not the only immortal. Her rights cannot be above those of others like her."

“But along with Sunset, they are the only ones exiled from the world,” Sapphire said. "Exiled and limited in their influence."

"Your statement is false,” Black Moon said curtly, and Sapphire exhaled on that but said nothing; Black Moon continued, "Nevertheless, We will acknowledge Purity's words and your participation. Now, what do you prefer to be called? Hardly ‘a shard of the Red'," Black Moon smiled.

“I am Sunset Shimmer,” she replied, and even without an image, a smile was heard in her voice, "I have never lost either myself or this name, Twilight Starfall… or should I go even deeper and call you Twilight Sparkle instead?"

"Sorry that I can't provide a video stream. You came here without warning," Sapphire spoke again.

Blue Moon replied soothingly, "It is okay, it's not the most important thing, and for things that are truly important you had no chance to help with in the first place, even if you would know in advance. Still, it is good that you are present. Thanks, and do not be afraid to speak out."

White Moon, the only one who remained near the crater, although all the stones above it were still hanging in the magical aura of the alicorns, hurried Sunset, "We are listening. What do you want, Sunset Shimmer?"

"Power, maybe?" Sunset paused briefly and laughed. In response, there was neither objection, nor indignation nor answer; laughter fell into the void, "Actually, no. I just want a share of influence on the world equal to each of the Moons. Not only in my domain but around the world. I want to be the one who really does matter, or at least no less than Moons do. This is the only way I can ensure the safety of my domain."

“It will come true,” said the Trinity of Moons, and there was no echo, no flash, just Blacklight’s heart skipped a beat, and it became so.

"Be careful!" Sapphire exclaimed.

White Moon answered him, "We know what we are doing. It was inevitable." and without a pause she addressed Sunset, "But many aspects will be locked up until Green Moon's rise, and inaccessible to you before She makes Her first pick."

"Who? Does Green Moon really exist? Tell me more!" Blacklight squeaked, because if there was a mystery in the world that she wanted to deal with besides her designation, then it was Green Moon. All traces, all prophecies, all — very few in number — ponies who were saying that they saw Her with their own eyes, and never repeated the testimony even thrice, and all the evidence of Her non-existence, always with some incorrectible flaw—

Black Moon stepped towards her and tilted Her head, almost touching Blacklight's ear, "Not quite yet. There shall be a cycle when She will rise without a doubt, but so far the circumstances do not allow it. This is a secret in itself. I hope you will treat it with appropriate care. Do you copy?"

Blacklight nodded, stunned; three beats later, catching her breath, she realized that she was worried. Then she got the reason for that and asked, “Are Heralds in the sub okay, Sunset? Are they even alive? I can’t hear them at all, even Storm had no word since—"

"We are approaching the surface. They are alive, and I didn’t touch Storm at all." Sunset said.

Confirmation followed in a beat, by Storm’s voice "Yes, everypony is fine, there is enough air, just don’t tarry..."

Then Sunset went on, “My next condition is related to them. You expect the Six to come together and do a miracle — that miracle shall be mine.”

Black Moon stretched her neck and shook her head; her answer was delayed and measured, “No, Sunset. I understand your train of thought, but no. It is impossible to ‘own’ a miracle, or even hope you get what you ask for, verbatim or not. This is not a wishmaster. It cannot be approached like a vending machine that sells cookies. It cannot even be expected to work in a predictable way, and it is shrouded even from the Trinity. It will either want to happen approximately as you ask, or not. Or it will choose quite a different path.”

White Moon spoke then, all but interrupting, “The best thing you can do is speak to the bearers of the miracle. Ask them, explain to them what you would like, and if they share this volition, then you will have a chance.”

Sunset was silent for too long. Sapphire coughed and said that the channel remains active, just the other side silent. Plum drew faces of her friends with a stick on the snowy sand. Time passed, and after a third of a slice, instead of Sunset, Cursory replied, “She's shy,” Cursory chuckled, “For real. I will say it, then. She wants not a synthesis, but a family. To be part of a binary Moon, where neither of the two loses themselves and tries to defeat the other. How do you like it?”

“Which of us will take the lead?” the Red asked simply, and Blacklight turned her head to look at the motionless, dark metal silhouette.

“I will,” Sunset whispered, “if there is a miracle for us. But not so much that you find yourself completely devoid of presence and voice in our actions. Otherwise, it would be my victory, and I— in laypony’s terms, I have already given up on that. I can confirm again that I forfeit the winning. Thanks to the Heralds. So... please agree. It's better than everything you have now, even if it's less than you would like. And I still need a miracle for us to succeed.”

Black Moon bowed her head and smiled; Her horn flashed with ghostly green, and Her voice had a timbre of sadness, “This state is unstable on the scale of eternity. You are too close not to be eventually united into a singular entity, just as all of Us did in first histories — if there are no other obstacles, which there are not. Generations will be born and dead before that, but for all times to come after that—”

“I shall remain,” the Red smiled in response.

“Or perhaps I,” Sunset added

“What if We disagree?” White Moon remarked sternly and dryly. “It may turn out that your alliance would become stronger than any of the Moons, and you are still enemies to Us. It’s possible for the rearrangement to merely strengthen you without changing anything else for us.”

“Isn't that why You are still against it?” Sunset objected. “Nothing changed for the matter. After the full synthesis, to which you agreed, we too might remain Your enemies, and You would try to shoot us down on our first rise.”

White Moon shook her head slowly, “In that case there would be a different person instead of you. She could become a worthy and honest partner in Our game. Neither you nor the Red strike me as such partners. I stand by this assessment, and thus am against this union.”

Blue Moon objected, “Intimacy with others changes the shape of the soul over time, even for the immortals. This is a good chance, it is in the spirit of My aspects and is truly beautiful. I feel this and thus, on the contrary, am in favor of it.”

Black Moon stepped forward, “For this solution, in the near future, complications are utterly inevitable; but time will pass, and we can improve Our position a lot, or lose, depending on other factors. I know this, and I delegate the decision to the bearers of the miracle. Blacklight? Please.”

Time passed, and Blacklight realized that everypony was looking at her and waiting for something. She adjusted her glasses, cleared her throat — the cold was ripping through, nopony warned that she would have to speak on this, and she did not even prepare her flashcards! But, sniffling, she said, “As I understand it, we will be able to actually speak with the Red? With Sunset. Will it— she have her own predictable time in the cycle? Will she stop killing and poisoning ponies? Then it will be better. Anything would be better than how things are now. I have nothing more to say.”

Plum and Dartline stood in line with her, a befitting five steps away. Dartline said, “We're far from the Metropolis. But She will be against it, I know for sure. She will have to rebuild Herself — too much and too painfully. I am against it. Let's go home, Blackie, please. You say that nothing could be worse — what if the Red would never leave the sky, for example? What if we’d have to hide in the vaults forever?”

Blacklight shook her head with a sidelong glance.

Plum smiled, “Even if this tale ends in disaster, we will survive to tell more — or we would become a tale ourselves. ‘Hear the story of Blacklight, a unicorn whose coat was black as the darkness itself, and her glorious friends who plunged the world into the abyss of great evil!’ And if we leave, what will remain after us? So I am saying, go for it!”

Gentle Touch and Cursory Streak shared their answer between them, without interrupting each other, with the pegasus warning that she will speak for both, “We think— we believe that you all have played the game for too long. Planning and scheming to defeat your enemies, you forget about the ponies, or consider them as no more than expendables. We have to— what we do is solve the issues that you created in the first place, even though we love our work.” Cursory took a deep breath and went on, “We know that this is not entirely true, but... you see, for all the past eras that Sunset spent expanding her domain, she did not try to capture the entire ocean, even if nothing was stopping her. She cares about her ponies, not the area of ​​the property on the map, and we haven’t even heard about her before recently, unlike all of you! So, please, take a step back and take a breather in your search for the ultimate victory. See what comes out of it. Please.”

Solid Line was next, and all three Moons frowned at her words, “Let's say we refuse. Then Sunset will still find a way to give advice and signals to the Red — and you probably don't want that. Consider that Sunset got the brains after the split.”

The Moons nodded, clearly concerned, and Black Moon agreed, “While We can deny the very possibility of communication between the ocean and the sky at a fundamental level, We will severely degrade Our civilization and technology at that. She is right.”

“I'm not stupid!” the Red exclaimed indignantly, and entirely too late; Plum smiled at Blacklight, but held back a laugh.

"Is that all you want, Sunset?" White Moon raised Her leg.

“No. I need an actual exit to the surface, if you don’t mind. Plum Jam, if it is not too much to ask, please dive into the water, with your wound still open. It won't hurt, and it will happen only if you are going in with full agreement to be a vessel for me—”

Sapphire interrupted her, alarmed and surprised, “We have a problem! Purity has gone dark. All this time I called Purity so that she would pay attention and say at least something by herself, and received only "Access denied" in response to all priorities. Ultimately I used the one-time emergency short-term camera access code to check up on her. And the place is empty. Throughout all of our stations, she is no more! And her husband too. And, it seems, they left quite recently, less than a slice ago!”

“Oh,” Black Moon breathed, looking up at the sky. “Then we have to hurry.”

Comments

[Numinos]

I really like ritualistic feels of your dialogues. So dignified : ) Nice chapter. Did Purity decided in the course of action? She was all for destroying the Moons, didn't she?