(Flutterdash) The Whole Story

Luna rubbed her eyes and took the coffee mug blindly from the guard. “Thank you, Constantune."

“You’re welcome, Princess Luna.”

Not Constantune’s voice. Not any guard’s voice. Luna opened her eyes to a bleary image of Twilight, looking tired, holding her own cup of coffee. Somewhere behind her a gray blob shuffled with a sparkle; it was the batpony night guard she’d mistaken Twilight for.

In her advanced state of grogginess, having just climbed out of bed minutes ago, she forgot formalities and instead slipped unintentionally into the first thought in her mind. “This isn’t good news, is it Twilight?”

“Well, it could be a lot worse news.”

“Hmm. Let us talk while we eat, then. Unless, of course, you have probably already eaten?”

“Yes, I had dinner before I came.”

Twilight wasted no time. She told her everything, including her talk with Cadence and Shining Armour. When she finished, Luna had already eaten and raised the moon. Twilight felt better, she realized, after getting the same stuff off of her chest so many times. It began to feel silly, in fact, how uncomfortable she felt with same-sex relationships.

Walking off the top tower the princesses used for raising the sun and the moon, Luna put a friendly wing around Twilight. “I understand, Twilight. I think it admirable how you are able to self-scrutinize, and do not vacuously support nor degrade your friend. You thought critically about it first, and I find that a very special trait.”

She removed her wing. Their hooves echoed on the marble. The batpony nightguards were switching out with the day guards down the hall, a soft susurration of friendly conversation pooled at their fetlocks like fog in a dream.

She continued, “As for your situation, I do not know what you want me to do about it. I cannot see where my or my sister’s power could be wielded without significant backlash. This, Twilight, is the double-edged sword of freedom. They are free to be mean to each other, however awful it might be. The brick thrown through her window, that could be punished very severely, as an example perhaps, if not for lack of perpetrator. Otherwise, there is not much I can do. The majority of companies of in Ponyville are privately owned, and so have more rights to discriminate based on the founder’s beliefs.”

“But you wouldn’t let them not serve unicorns, or not serve earthponies would you?”

“No, that kind of discrimination is enforcibly illegal.”

“Then why is this not?”

“Because it has not become this significant until now. And, although I know it not to be a choice, your sexuality, it is not as physical as someone’s race. So, there will always be somepony arguing vehemently that it is all imagination of the ponies’ minds. You and your friends, Twilight, are on the bleeding edge of social reform.”

“That’s troubling.”

“My sister and I could enforce it into law, we might, even, but not only will it take both of us to do it, it will take enough paperwork to set back the effectiveness of it by at least a week.”

“Well... That’s still better than nothing. If you do it. Why would you not?

“Freedom, Twilight, freedom again. It is unfortunately up to us, and to an extent up to you now, Princess, to etch the lines of freedom into life. Where does the shop owner’s freedom to run his shop end and the homosexual pony’s freedom to shop begin? For, after all, are there not other shops? Did not the shop owner start the shop herself? Is not the pony still an individual with needs? Is not homosexuality an unchangeable piece of character? Freedom is a tougher question than it appears, I assure you.”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t think I like politics.”

“Ponies in a heard, or a civilization, create politics of necessity. Then grow them, naturally, into a monster that consumes all but the few. I pray you never like it.”

“Well, if you do sign it into law, I think we can make it a week in Ponyville.”

Luna smiled at her in the oily dandelion of the lamplight, her coat standing out beautifully against the creamy marble wall behind her. “I shall see to it, and I can say you should be optimistic about it.” She pulled some paper from the air and wrote on it with her magic. It disappeared again.

“Is there anything I can do to sooth your mind, Twilight?”

Twilight looked up appreciatively at her. She hadn’t expected this to take so little time. Sooth my mind. Nopony talks like that anymore, I need to hang out with Luna more often. I guess it’ll just take time. For me and Ponyville.

“Would you like to see a dream, while I have you here?”

“A dream?”

“Yes. It might help to see the sides of your friends that are incapable of lying, the subconscious that sprawls itself out in unapologetically strange and surreal ways in the form of dreams.”

“Isn’t that really personal though? Like, I know some of my dreams I wouldn’t want anypony seeing.” It occurred to her, “You haven’t seen... all of my dreams, have you?”

Luna smiled a little too happily, “I turn away when they get graphic, but it is my job to survey dreams, and this means I must briefly check up on you.”

Twilight’s stomach felt a little thicker, “I—uh—I don’t—when you saw the one—”

“It is okay, Twilight. Like I said, I do not linger in personal or sexual dreams for longer than ten seconds; just enough time to assess whether I need to intervene. And it is natural, when your body constructs these fantasies for you, because it is an encrypted expression of your brain busy in the background. It does not make you a different pony; dreams do not mold the heart.”

Twilight could feel the flush all over her face and her feathers prickle up. “Thanks I guess.”

“And besides,” Luna dropped her voice to a whisper, “Between you and me, that royal guard is very handsome.”

“Luna!”

She laughed and trotted forward gaily, “Oh Twilight, to see your face! I am sorry, but what a jest it was was worth it.”

Twilight stared at the floor, annoyed.

“Oh, and it is not intrusive,” Luna said, getting back on subject, “because you are a princess, Twilight. This is within your authority; they are the peasantry. And I can survey the dream first. If it is inappropriate, I will not let you see it if you do not want to.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Whatever pleases you. I must return to work though, if there is nothing I can do to help.”

“Well, I don’t suppose there is. If you see anypony who confesses to throwing the brick, that might be helpful.”

“I’ll keep my eye trained for it.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna.”

“You are welcome, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

When she got back to her tree house, it was late and she was tired. Spike had already gone to bed. He was curled up, asleep, and only shifted slightly as Twilight opened the door to her room. She slipped into bed and drifted slowly off to sleep.

Applejack stared at the rising sun. Everything felt wrong. The sliver of white-red pushed feebly at the horizon, slowly painting over the dusk and gaining a golden momentum. She stared down at the sugar-covered grapefruit and cup of coffee balanced on the window sill of her bedroom.

She didn’t have the heart to eat downstairs like a normal pony, where Big Mac was eating. He might be finished by now, might be in the fields. But she didn’t want to see him right now. She didn’t want to see anypony. She rested her head on her jaw on the sill, the coffee warming her cheek.

What am I going to do?

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash tried to go about their day normally, keeping a respectful distance from other ponies. They saw Rarity and Twilight and Pinkie, but nopony else besides in passing remarks.

The day drug on gloomily, an odd moroseness in the sunshine and sparse clouds, in the warm breeze and calm waving of the grass. A sadness in it all, contrite and pervasive. The sun set in a haze of gentle fog and sleepy whispers of ponies’ walking and conversing. Waiting for something. The night held it’s breath in anticipation, the stars stared without twinkling, looking for clues, eager, the moon only a silver curved hair in the punctured dark.