Teatime for Two
A One-Shot
Luna began by taking a sip of the tea. The thin rim allowed for the tea to pour across her taste buds, giving her and her taste buds the best experience possible from the Jasmine. She swallowed, and it felt like swallowing pure joy, with a hint of wood. Possibly cherry. The sip completed, she sat the cup down on her saucer. A minor tremor shook the saucer ever so slightly, and a ‘ting’ sound rang out as the cup hit with just too much force. She looked across the table at the Alicorn who was, and was not, her beloved sister. Around them both, Canterlot had all the hustle and bustle one would expect from Equestria’s capital.
“I always wondered about these cups, you know. I had not before my sister… left, and afterward I didn’t want to try and discover their secret for fear of changing them irrevocably.” Celestia took a sip, following her example. Setting her own cup down, she closed her eyes, enjoying the flavour. She too swallowed, and replied without opening her eyes.
“Perfectly understandable. Had I been gone for as long as she, I would be grasping for any familiarity. Even a new flavour in the tea would unnerve me greatly. I know Luna was surprised when I revealed how I had kept all her possessions in magnificent condition, considering her absence.” Luna considered this for a moment, and grinned.
“Even her Abacus?” Celestia, eyes still closed, returned the grin.
“Especially her abacus. She seemed especially overjoyed at its return.” Her eyes opened, and she looked at the Luna that was not Luna. “I wonder, have you kept that among the ages? I would imagine that you have replaced it with a more convenient device by now.”
“Sadly, yes. I have kept it, however, within a glass case in my tower. Still, the difference engine has been a wonderful replacement thus far.” Celestia cocked her head. In the distance, far, far away, a pony screamed, before being cut off suddenly. Her ear twitched towards the sound, but otherwise let it pass without comment.
“Difference engine? You are still using that device?” Luna nodded, taking another sip of her tea. She set the cup down without the offending noise this time.
“ As does most of Canterlot, in recent times. Many keep their Abacuses for minor calculations, of course. Primarily taxes.” Celestia’s eyebrow rose.
“Taxes? Hm. We shall come back to that after this. But back to the subject at hand, your Equestria has not developed the calculator?”
“We have not. Enlighten me, please.” Celestia shifted to reach her saddlebags, which had not been there until she needed them. After flipping them open and digging through, she pulled out a small plastic rectangle with rubber buttons and a Plexiglas screen.
“A Calculator.” She stated, passing the device in question to Luna, who took it in her hooves. “Simply press the buttons to input the desired numbers, and press that button there to get the result.” Luna nodded, already tapping out an equation to test it. Satisfied, she passed it back.
“Interesting. A smaller version of the difference engine, I assume?”
“Correct. Harnessing electricity, as do many devices. Take the streetlights, for instance.” She pointed at the nearest one, which was simply on the other side of the café’s fence. It was completely possible it had been there the whole time, but it hadn’t been worth mentioning until now.
“Wires run beneath the streets, and these are all hooked into a central power grid. The electricity heats up the filament inside the light bulb, which glows bright enough to illuminate the street during the night.”
“Replacing the gas pipes, of course.”
“Of course. They had a nasty habit of exploding.”
“I imagine so. May we return to the tea?”
“Ah, yes. The reason the teacups are so distinctive is because they are of Neighponese design, from the Yi Xing province. The clay there, when used in teacups such as these, is extremely porous. Every cup of tea poured in these remains, adding flavour to every cup afterward. If used for any other flavour of tea, besides the first, it changes the flavour, often unpleasantly.”
“And I did not know that you enjoyed Jasmine tea the most.”
“Correct. Or perhaps not; I am not my counterpart. She could have entirely different tastes than I.”
“I shall have to ask next time I see her, then.” They both let out a small chuckle at that. There was another tremor, and the liquid inside the cups sloshed ever so slightly. Celestia steadied it with her hoof, with an expression of concern across her muzzle.
“Those appear to be becoming more severe.”
“They do.” Replied Luna, completely unconcerned.
“Should we not be worried about that?”
“No, for there is nothing to be concerned about.” Celestia spared a glance behind her, where several very concerned ponies were running around, panicking.
“Do you mind elaborating? If nothing else, I worry about these ponies.”
“Of course.” Luna took another sip of her tea, before shifting in her chair slightly, to get more comfortable. “We, by which I mean you and I, are currently residing in a pocket universe. The means by which I managed this are incredibly complicated, having been somewhat adapted from a dreamwalking spell, and the magical drain is taxing. Hence why neither you nor I have used our magic thus far. This also means that we cannot maintain this for very long, and it will take almost a full day to ‘recharge’ as it were.”
“I see. And the fact that it seems to be gradually collapsing, and taking this version of Canterlot with it? Are these ponies nonexistant?”
“No no, of course not. They are as real as you or I, or any pony back in our respective universes.”
“Then you do not worry about their death?”
“I do not. To create this pocket universe, I exploited a loophole in the fabric of reality, creating a new divergence point in both universes, and joining the ends together to create this one. They would not exist at all had I not done this.”
“Ah. And this divergence point?”
“Whether or not we did, or did not, show up to-day to have tea. The collision is too much of a strain on this universe, hence why it is collapsing, not unlike a dream.”
“And this will not, in any way, affect My Little Ponies? Or yours, for that matter?”
“Thankfully, no. When this universe collapses entirely, we will simply be deposited back from whence we came. Possibly even at the same time, although notably exhausted.” A blue Earth Pony ran down the street, screaming, and passing right past the two goddesses sitting at the table. Celestia watched her go, and took another sip of her tea.
“And they do not notice us?”
“We could hardly have this conversation were we persistently being pestered by panicking ponies, could we?”
“An invisibility glamour, then? And excellent alliteration.”
“Thank you. And no, not quite an invisibility glamour. It is more akin to… simply erecting a shield, but one’s mind tells them that what is within the shield is incredibly uninteresting, like one would regard something that was simply somepony else’s problem.”
“Clever.”
“I would hope so. My student came up with it.” There was a moment of relative silence as they both took a sip of their tea, and a building at the end of the street collapsed. They both held their hooves over the rim of their respective cups, to shield the contents from the dust.
“That reminds me, Luna. This Trixie, she is the Element of Magic in your universe?”
“She is, and I could hardly be more proud.”
“And the others, Raindrops, Ditzy Doo, Cheerilee-“
“I rather like that one, to be honest. She rather reminds me of you. She even sounds somewhat alike.”
“Really? I had not noticed. But the others, who were they… Ah yes, Lyra and Carrot Top. I took me a moment, as I cannot memorize the name of every single one of my subjects.”
“Nor I. They seem to simply fade into the background, do they not?”
“As much as I dislike saying it, yes, almost exactly like that. But, back to my main point, would you say they are better off in your universe?” Luna blinked, before putting a hoof to her chin.
“Better off? Hm. I wouldn’t… Hm. Really, what it seems like to me, is they have more time in the spotlight, that they have realized that what they do matters. That what they do with their lives has impact. Cheerilee, I feel, had already gotten a taste of that, being a teacher. But the others… They have a drive, of sorts, a motivation to them that their doppelgangers do not.”
“And the Elements from my universe, I dare even going so far as to call them my Elements, are lacking that drive in your universe?”
“Correct. They are all… simply there. More grounded. I believe that they do know each other, but are not as close as they are in yours. Perhaps the arrival of Twilight Sparkle was merely a catalyst?”
“As was Trixie? They did seem to bond together fairly quickly after her arrival in both universes.” Celestia took another sip. The light nearby sparked, the power getting cut off. Celestia could not, for the life of her, recall whether the light had or had not been on previously. It seemed to be roughly sundown, so it could’ve been either.
“Yet another divergence point, I believe. Perhaps there is another pair of universes where the opposite occurred.” Celestia’s eyebrow rose.
“Where, in mine, Trixie Lulamoon was the one to arrive and galvanize five ponies?”
“And in mine, Twilight Sparkle arrived in Ponyville and assembled her friends?” They both looked at each other and giggled.
“Well, Luna, let us hope that we do not also stumble across more of our doppelgangers. I can only imagine naming ourselves would become incredibly confusing!”
“Hehe… Indeed! What would my name be? Alpha Luna?”
“I cannot help feel it would be preferable to Beta Celestia!” The giggles grew into full chortles, as above them, Canterlot castle began to collapse in on itself. Gradually, they both composed themselves, still letting out the occasional giggle when they thought of something else funny. Luna was the first to truly calm herself, and she stood up from her chair. This caught Celestia by surprise.
“Luna, is something wrong? Why are you- oomph!” Luna had hugged her with shocking strength, almost out of nowhere. Celestia could hear Luna’s voice from where it was nuzzling her.
“I apologize, but… It is simply so good to hear your laugh again. I know you are not my Celestia, and that I have to do something about her. Something that I might regret, but she may force my hoof in doing so. But… Let me pretend. Just for now.”
“Of course. Take as long as you need.” Roughly ten feet away, the rest of the café began to collapse, seemingly into nothingness. Not black, not a blank white, but simply infinity. “Or at least, until other circumstances hurry us.” Luna nodded, losing herself in the feel of her sister’s fur, the scent of Vanilla, and felt the rest of the world beginning to dissolve around them.
She looked back up at Celestia. “Surely this is too soon? I have so much I wished to discuss with you, and I worked so hard, simply to result in this?” Celestia smiled a sad smile.
“I too, feel this has been far too short. There is so much we could talk about, so much we could share… Still, there is nothing preventing us from doing this again, is there?” Luna appeared to lose herself in her sister’s fur again. Her voice was only slightly muffled.
“Correct. And you do not mind my summons?”
“Of course not! I always have time for my little Lulu. No matter what universe she hails from. Now, if only the native one could understand that…” Luna nodded. Around them both, the café was uttering its death rattle, in the form of the precious Xi Ying cups and saucers and plates all rattling their way off the table and shattering on the ground, only to get sucked into the encroaching void surrounding them.
“Now, Lulu, if you’ll pardon me, you did bring me here in the middle of a meeting with the representative from the Gryphon empire…”
“Ah, well. Do not let me detain you. I understand completely.”
“Indeed. Thank you, Luna. And, honestly, feel free to do this again whenever you feel it necessary. I do not mind in the slightest.”
“Thank you… Sister. I wish the goodbye did not have to come so suddenly.”
“Likewise, Sister. Farewell, until we meet again.”
“Farewell, Celestia.” And with that, Celestia disappeared into the void surrounding Luna. It had been a fun little foray, but it had to end sometime. Still, if only it had lasted a little longer… Oh well. The spell was centered on Luna, but was quickly closing.
With one last sad smile, Luna popped out of existence, The pocket universe followed shortly afte-
Author's Note
So! I wrote a Lunaverse story!
Anyway, don't take this seriously. I'm not sure where it would fit into canon, if anyone was concerned about that, and it wasn't really designed to. I came up with the idea before I'd read Crisis on two Equestrias, and I did try to make it fit, but... ah well.
At least I also got a sort of metaphor for fanfiction out of it...
So, I'm sure this'll bring at least a couple new readers this way, and I encourage all of you to check out my other stories, blog posts, all that great gubbins. And, even if you don't, even if you hated this story, thanks for at least reading it all the way through.
