Equestria
Afternoon
I trot down the palace corridor, fun sized ponies stepping out of my way. But it's more in wary deference than outright
fear, and that's
good. Both because it suggests that they're not stupid and because I… Don't really want tiny equinoids to be afraid of me.
"…resonance effect from having thousands of thaumically active individuals believing the same thing!"
Sounds like Sunset's made a… Person whom she tolerates?
"But that doesn't explain why they believe that in the first place!"
Twilight's awake, then. Not sure why she came
here…
I knock on the door.
"Yes!" /
"Yes!"
I push the door open and then trot inside. Celestia's current and previous students are standing in front of a blackboard covered in… Um, even
more Atlantean thaumaturgical notation
several levels more advanced than
I can understand and what appears to be the far more primitive pony equivalents.
Though the meaning of 'F ≠ M' is clear enough, especially with Sunset's chalk floating next to it.
"Sunset, I need your help."
She glares at the blackboard, then at Twilight, then turns to me. "Well I'm not making any progress
here."
"Am I attractive?"
"Ah." She blinks. "What?"
I shake my head. "
I don't know anything about pony standards of beauty, do I?"
"I-." A mildly disturbed look on her face, Sunset gives my front arc the once-over. "Why.. do you even want to know?"
"I had that whole dream thing with Luna, but I don't know if she's just humouring me or if there's actually any potential there."
Sunset fixes me with a level gaze. "Grayven, I'm..
glad that you're enjoying yourself, but-." I do my best to look innocent. She doesn't buy it. "Grayven, this is my home. I lived here for most of my life, and I do
not want you treating this as a booty call."
"I'm
not. I like her."
"And… What about Kara?"
"Is constantly on guard to thwart my villainy. That's not a good basis for a healthy relationship. I don't want to have to constantly blackmail someone into spending time with me."
"Can we..
please.. focus?"
"Alright. How's it going?"
"Ah…" Twilight looks uncertain. "I'm still not sure this is going to work."
"Jgh!" Sunset gestures to the board. "I
literally just finished explaining it to you. You know it makes sense. You're not
that indoctrinated. You'd have to be some sort of total Starswirl fanfilly-."
"
Wh-? What?" Twilight
grins unconvincingly. "P
f! N
ooo. I'm sure there's a
perfectly good explanation why your math seems to make more sense than Starswirl's Grand Thaumatic Theory."
Sunset rolls her eyes.
"Looks like Celestia got to you early."
"Do you suddenly
not want to study the magics that turned me into an alicorn?"
"M
mmm…" Sunset hesitates. "
No..?"
"Nooooo..?"
"No, I would like to study the magical links between you and your friends please."
"Okay. So. I think-."
"Are you
allowed to help me?"
Twilight looks at her and frowns. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because I'm pretty sure Celestia banned Cadenza from talking to me about her ascension, and
I never got given Starswirl's spell book."
"Caden-? Cadance?" Twilight smiles, this time less disturbingly. "You know Cadance?"
"
Yeah, I was Celestia's student when she started living here." Sunset closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and exhales to expunge her irritation. I can hardly believe that Celestia didn't realise how Sunset would feel about there being another alicorn around, particularly after what Starswirl's mirror showed her. "Where
is she, anyway?"
"She's coming here! She and Shining Armor are taking the sleeper down from the Crystal Empire-."
"The Crystal
what?"
"Ah…" Twilight looks around, her eyes alighting on a scroll. "The Crystal Empire." The scroll glows in the colour of her magic as it rises off a bookshelf and unrolls itself. "It reappeared when the spells-" Sunset trots closer and peers at it. "-Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to keep King Sombra bound wore off."
Sunset narrows her eyes as she looks at the map's scale. "Looks more like a
city. Why would you call a
city an
empire?"
"Tradition, mostly. It used to have a lot more territory, but when Sombra went to war with Equestria they got pushed back further and further, until they only held the capital city. When that
vanished, the rest of their territory was annexed by Equestria."
I frown. "I've been thinking. Wouldn't using the Elements of Harmony have made more sense than rooting around for the Crystal Heart? I mean… That's basically what you use them
for, isn't it? 'See unfriendly villain, rainbow cannon to the face'?"
"No, we didn't bring them with us."
I blink, then shake my head in bewilderment. "Why not? I would have thought that they would be the perfect counter."
Sunset rolls her eyes. "Because Celestia didn't tell her to."
"That's not
why. The Crystal Heart powers the spells keeping the city warm. Without it, all the crystal ponies would have frozen. And if I hadn't had to find it then I'd have never confronted and overcome my worst fears."
I raise my eyebrows. "What
was that, anyway?"
"Having Celestia rejec.. t… Me." She glances awkwardly at Sunset, who rolls her eyes.
"Um."
There's a knock at the door, and Twilight sighs in relief before giving us another extremely fake grin.
"Let me just get that."
Twilight trots over to the door and opens i-.
"
Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!"
"Ah. Cadance? I didn't think you were getting here until-?"
"Clap your hooves-" Twilight grimaces back at us as she sits on her haunches and plays a brief game of pat-a-cake with her former foalsitter. "-and do a little
shake."
Sunset has gone very still.
"I didn't think you were getting here until later."
"I heard a
ru-mour about you and Aunt Celestia." There's a momentary pause. "Twilight, are you
hiding something?"
"Ah. No?"
"Is there somepony in there you don't want me to see?"
There's a definite eagerness in her voice. If she hadn't popped into existence with no build-up for the purpose of the series two finale, I'd be curious as to how exactly her charge ended up as socially isolated as she did. And how Twilight remained a bachelorette even
after discovering the magic of friendship. But as it is-
"
No, of course-."
-I just see a feed line.
I
grin. "Yes!"
