Fermentation

by Orbiting Kettle

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 3327

After a decade apart, Luna and Twilight meet again in an old tavern, trying to keep the loneliness of an empty world at bay. During a night of strong drinks and remembrance they share stories and musings while a storm rages outside.

After a decade apart, Luna and Twilight meet again for a night of strong drinks and remembrance. Once upon a time loneliness was something they could chose. Now, in an empty world, it's a steady companion for both of them. And sometimes it can lead one astray, even when one knows it might be a bad idea.

Thanks to the Four Hooves and a Pen collective, where this story was born.

Published 2015-11-07 23:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-11-07 23:40:02 UTC

On a dark and stormy night

The city was empty and dark in the storm, not a single light shining from the windows of houses and skyscrapers. Water poured down in heavy waves, the streets transformed into small rivers. On the outskirts, in the middle of red brick warehouses and workshops, stood a wood and stone building, older than anything around it. A hanging sign swinging in the wind told the empty streets this was the Three Stars and a Song tavern.

Thunder rumbled, lightning illuminating the dirt covered tables and benches and rain drumming on the dirty windows. The door flew open with a cloud of dust, and two imposing figures covered in a multihued glimmering shield entered, hisses of steam rising from the raindrops hitting it. They shut the door behind them. After a few seconds the shield flickered and disappeared, revealing Luna and Twilight Sparkle, manes flowing with power, their horns almost scratching the ceiling.

Twilight looked around in the dark room and wrinkled her nose. Her horn ignited with a violet aura and a harsh lavender light washed over the tavern. Dust disappeared where it passed, tables and benches creaked, broke down, and reformed anew. Wood lost the dry gray tone of age, returning to a homely warm brown. A few richly embroidered pillows of various colors popped into existence. Lamps and torches appeared and ignited, filling the room with the glow of flames. As the light of magic dissipated, Twilight turned to Luna. “Please have a seat, I’ll be back in a moment.” Twilight walked behind the bar, phasing through the counter. She threw open a trapdoor and descended into the cellar.

Luna winced at the sound of shattering wood and squeaking furniture. From below, she could hear Twilight muttering “…should be here, I think… Where did this… Why did I put a cupboard here? Ah, the ledger, let’s see… thank goodness for good bookkeeping, now which are the right barrels… EUREKA!”

Three barrels levitated out of the trapdoor, followed by an almost immaculate Twilight Sparkle. Dust and cobwebs flowed down from her coat like drops of water off oilcloth and flew into a corner in a neat heap. The barrels were made of dark wood with iron rings covered in an intricate web of glowing runes. Symbols seemed to wander across the surfaces in slow waves.

Luna shoved aside a nearby bench and moved a pillow before one of the tables. She sat down and raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s find.

Twilight put the barrels under the counter, manipulating something on their exterior as she did so. There was a brief hiss. Twilight chuckled and smiled. “Well, it didn’t explode, so I think it can be safely inferred that it worked.” Grabbing and cleaning two ceramic tankards from behind the bar with her magic, she put them under the taps and began, with gentle pulls on the levers, to pour a dark, thick liquid into them.

Luna adjusted herself a bit and looked to Twilight. Luna shivered a little, frowning at the cold. Her horn flared up and in the hearth a roaring fire appeared. The warmth spread through the tavern, and Luna smiled. She leaned her head on a hoof. “Tell me Twilight, why did you bring me here this time?”

Twilight stared at the flowing brew, her face scrunched in concentration, delicately manipulating the lever to regulate the flow. “Fermentation.”

Luna blinked. “What does that mean?”

Twilight levitated the first mug, observed it critically, then took the second one and began to fill it. “Fermentation. It’s a fascinating process. You seed a mixture with the right ingredients, and then you let it rot. With enough time complex chemical processes break down some of the components and after a set time you get a beverage…”

Luna raised a hoof. “Twilight, I am quite familiar with the concept of fermentation and of the resulting products. I wanted to know what its relation is to the place we are in now.” She looked around, wrinkling her nose. “While you tidied this place up quite nicely, with all of Equestria free for us to roam about there have to be better places to meet.”

Twilight finished filling the second tankard without looking up. “I never managed to get fermentation right with magic, and believe me, I tried. Everything came out either bland or undrinkable. So I had to do it the old fashioned way, enchant some barrels to maintain the right conditions and then wait.” She pointed at one of the barrels. “I started this batch twenty seven years and forty-eight days ago, and now it’s ready. It is also very tricky to transport.” She looked critically at the two tankards, a crown of soft foam topping each. She nodded, walked to the table and then sat them down in front of Luna.

Luna grabbed her mug and sniffed at it. She looked perplexed up to Twilight. “What is this? I am sure I never have seen or smelled it before.”

Twilight smiled radiantly. “It’s an ancient Diamond Dog recipe. It’s brewed from mushrooms, roots and some mineral powder. It was reserved for monumental occasions. I recovered the instructions from the crumbling archives of the Malachite Den.” She observed her own mug, rotated it, poked the foam. “I wanted to experiment with some wine, but that would require me to cure a vineyard. I don’t want to do that again for a while. Besides, it was rumored that this stuff could take down a minotaur with three small glasses and make hardened Packleaders weep in joy and delight. Well, told with other words, but that was the gist of it. So you see why I had to try it.” She glances to Luna. “And I thought that there can’t be a better way to taste it than with friends. If it’s good, we have a fun night before us; if it’s bad, well, we can at least see who throws the barrels farther.”

Luna grinned. “Well, then let us partake in this supposed essence of bliss.” She raised her tankard. “To Equestria!”

Twilight smiled. “To Equestria!” The two alicorns drank, gulping down the brew in a single, long swallow.

Luna brought the tankard down and smacked her lips. “’Twas good. This really is something worth waiting for.”

Twilight nodded. “It isn’t bad, is it? My first trial didn’t go quite so well: there’s still a ruin downtown where things went wrong.” She grabbed the two tankards and, without standing up, levitated them to the tap. She filled them up again. “So, will Celestia join us?”

Luna looked down at the table, sighing. “No, she is… meditating.” She raised her head. “Cadance?”

Twilight looked away. “No, she won’t.”

“Did something happen?”

Twilight sighed. “We broke up again.” The filled tankards returned, she took a sip, then chuckled. “Again. Same story as last time. Really, same as every time before that. I hope she’ll understand sooner or later that I’m not him. She’s back in the Crystal Empire now, probably trying to commune with the Crystal Heart.” Twilight closed her eyes, then returned her focus to Luna. “Not that it will do her any good. It’s an inert piece of rock as far as I know.” She shifted a bit. “Ah, enough with that, I haven’t drunk nearly enough to talk about it. Let’s talk about something more fun. How are things going for you? I think I saw moonlight reflecting from your project off the clouds a few nights ago.”

Luna emptied half her mug. “My work is fine. Actually, it is proceeding quite well. I have finished eight thousand five hundred and thirty-six statues, and I improved the melting process, so now I can get an almost perfect reflective surface, strong enough to stand against the weather for at least two millennia. Maybe I can do the same with the moon once I finish here.” She snickered. “The idea of a hundred mile long face of Granny Smith staring disapprovingly down on us could be entertaining.”

Twilight laughed. “Oh, it would be.” She took a few deep breaths. “Can I come to visit? Even if you haven’t finished yet, I would be glad to see you working at your project. I know you told me no last time, but with you grinding down the Unicorn Range the weather patterns have become quite chaotic, and now I am really curious.”

“You can come to visit. It would actually be quite pleasant and I think it would help me. I may need your suggestions on some details of your friends; I am not sure if I got Fluttershy right.” She quaffs the rest of her mug. “This is truly an interesting beverage. I may be feeling a slight tingle.”

“It really is good, I clearly need to prepare other barrels of this. Diamond Dogs could be a real pain in the flank sometimes, but they knew how to brew fungi. It’s a shame we didn’t discover it sooner.” Twilight filled another round. “You already arrived at my friends? Impressive, I thought it would take you longer. Wasn’t it something you were doing as an aside to the Great Mourning?”

Luna closed her eyes. “That came to an end a few years ago. Celestia doesn’t mourn anymore. She is back to her plotting again.”

Twilight swiveled her ears and smiled. “She got out of it? Well, that’s good news. If she’s forging plans, it means we’ll get the old Celestia back. What’s she up to?”

“I am aware of two of her plans: one is about recalling Discord, forcing him to answer her summonings and come back from wherever he fled to. The other one… She wants to create new ponies. Or not ponies, but still something capable of thought; she wants to care again for her little children. She is devising a ritual and has even asked for some statues.”

Twilight deflated, and lowered her sight to the table. “Fermentation.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “While I understand your new passion, I do not really see how that is pertinent…”

Twilight twirled a hoof on the table, leaning on the other. “Intelligence is like fermentation: you cannot get it right with a ritual or a spell. I know, I tried.”

“I suppose I expected something like that.”

“It was one of the first things I researched. But we can’t do it, not like that. We can’t do something we do not fully understand. Maybe, like fermentation, we can start the process somehow and then give it time and nourishment. Maybe not…”

Luna drank a bit, then, with trembling voice, asked, “What happened?”

“I created shadows and lies. I gave form to my memories, and then I burned down Ponyville in a fit of rage.” Twilight shivered. “It was the first time I became insane, I think. Cadance saved me a few months later.” She looked at Luna, small tears in the corner of her eyes. “Please, you have to stop Celestia. The things that come out of such spells are… Nopony should see them. It will break her heart.”

Luna stared at Twilight, swallowed nervously, then extended a hoof over the table and gently caressed her cheeks.

Twilight closed her eyes and wiped her tears away. She took a few deep breaths. Looking back up at her companion, she forced a brief smile.

Luna sat back down. “I will try, but I don’t think she will listen to me. She rarely does nowadays.” She took a sip from her tankard, then clenched her jaw. “Can you come with me? Maybe together with her once faithful student I could do better than as a sister alone.”

Twilight looked away. The rain was still falling copiously, thrumming against the windows. “I will think about it.” Lightning projected stark shadows. “I… It’s painful to think about that time. Celestia closed herself away from the world, you were caring for her…” A strangled laughter rose from her. “I would never have thought that she would be the first of us to snap. She came back soon, I know, but it’s always a seesaw with her.” Twilight raised her mug and downed the contents. “You have been the pillar. I never understood your strength before, but it seems you’re the stable axis of our world now.”

They remained silent for a few minutes. Then Luna, in a subdued tone, said, “I thought about bringing down the moon.”

Twilight remained unmoving for a while, then turned to Luna and crossed her legs on the table. “What stopped you?”

Luna scratched the table with a hoof. “Various reasons. I felt it was a decision I wanted to take together with you all. And even if it has been my prison, it is still the best part of me, and I still hold a deep love for it. To destroy it because I needed a big rock seemed disrespectful.” Her voice quivered, “And then because…” She emptied her mug, then looked at it with a tinge of sadness.

Twilight filled it up again, and deposited it in front of Luna. An hour passed.

Luna took a deep breath. “It would have been useless.”

Twilight drank, looking at Luna.

Luna ripped a brick out of the stonework with her magic. She levitated it before her eyes, then began to plasmate it like it was some kind of dough. She separated it into a few smaller spheres that started to orbit, one around the other. “I have meditated for a long time about our condition. Becoming an alicorn had some hidden conditions that we never understood fully. I may have made different choices if I knew…” Other spheres were added to the small system, one of the orbiting ones ignited. “No, I would probably have done the same thing, but maybe it would have been different for you.”

Twilight shook her head. “You know nothing could ever change my decision. Not even now, after all this.”

Luna snorted. “I know. One of the disadvantages of wisdom is that it becomes more and more difficult to lie to yourself.” She looked up at the small model of the solar system hovering over their heads. It had reached a staggering complexity, dozens of spheres and lumps of rock orbiting around each other. “We are bound to concepts and laws of nature. Like the law of sympathy, or the motion of the veil of stars, we are here as long as this universe exists. Our personifications may change, we can go mad, or love, we can lose ourselves, but at the end, here we are. I am the moon: no, worse, the idea of the moon. That’s the reason we didn’t move on like everypony else.”

Twilight observed the dance of rocks choreographed by Luna. “Why wouldn’t it work to bring the moon down on us?”

“Because we are not the object; we are the rules governing the object. If the moon shatters I still remain; maybe a new moon will form, maybe I will simply drift among the debris of the world, but I and my sister would still be there.”

Twilight looked back at Luna. “And Cadance and I?”

Luna turned away. The model system fell. The individual pieces were caught in a lavender aura and deposited carefully on a side. Twilight stood up and walked over to the other alicorn, spread her wings and hugged her.

The rain slowly gave way to occasional drops, the the cracks of lightning became rarer, the rumble of thunder grew distant. The tankards stood empty.

Luna took a deep breath. “I am not sure what would happen to you, maybe with the world itself destroyed you would disappear, maybe not. Celestia is my friend beside being my sister, and magic is abundant in the world. And regarding love…” She slumped down.

Twilight filled the mugs up one more time, her magic guiding them, her eyes still locked on Luna’s and her wings wrapped tight around her side.

Luna looked Twilight in the eyes. “I couldn’t risk it. I…”

The tankards returned, Twilight disentangled herself from Luna, and both took a long sip. Twilight grabbed the pieces of solar system in her magic and brought them over. “I’m glad you didn’t shatter the world. If deep down we are concepts, or the rules that govern them, we would probably be still here. And we would have a lot less good stuff to drink.”

Luna chuckled dryly, took the small planets and guided them again in the celestial dance. “That is true.” The dance terminated, and the spheres were embedded in the wood of the ceiling. Luna looked up, flashed her horn and all around the model painted stars appeared. “The thought of being alone… I know we didn’t see each other for a decade, but knowing you were still there is different from being truly alone. I do not want ever to feel again what I felt during my exile. Never again.”

Sound of splintering wood and crashing stone came from outside. The earth trembled, a window shattered and was immediately restored by a dark blue aura. Luna glared at Twilight. “Did you not renew the preservation spells?”

Twilight blushed and coughed. “I may have forgotten to do that on a few buildings. Managing my checklists became a bit more complicated without my assistant.” The blushing disappeared and she snickered. “Ah, who cares. The truth is there are a few buildings I really hate. Bancolt’s crimes against the cityscape can crumble and die and I will dance and sing over the debris.” She looked outside. “Now that I think about it, I may do exactly that tomorrow. Want to come?”

Luna laughed out. “Well, I always thought that there was something interesting underlying that style. But you are right, from a purely esthetic point of view, those constructions were horrible. What were they called?”

Twilight smiled. “A lot of things, but at the end they settled for Brutalist. A very apt name if you ask me. If my calculations are right, tomorrow morning there will be a lot less of them still standing.” She stared into the distance. “Maybe I could cover them in dirt and start that vineyard project…”

They sat in silence, hours passed. A few more buildings crumbled in the distance, their rumble making the city shiver. The sphere representing the moon fell out and was immediately put back again among its siblings. Luna leaned on Twilight. “You did arrange it so that they would collapse tonight.”

Twilight nodded. “I did.” She extended a wing and embraced Luna again. The fire in the hearth had died a while ago. She shifted a bit, and hugged Luna with her other wing as well. She whispered, “Can you stay with me for a while? I know you have your statues, and Celestia, but…”

Luna looked at her. “What about Cadance?”

“Things were said. I… I don’t think she’ll talk to me for a while. She said…” Twilight closed her eyes, shivering. “I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me.”

Luna nuzzled Twilight. “Forever is a very long time, you know that. You are being willingly melodramatic. Things will adjust again.” She returned the embrace with her own wings. She closed her eyes, and in a soft tone said, “But for now, I shall stay with you. My statues can wait; they are only memories made stone. And we, we are still alive.”

The sun rose over an empty city. The storm had given the coup de grace to a few buildings, leaving piles of rubble amidst the streets. Nothing moved, and yet still, for a few, life went on.

Author's Note

A lot of thanks to all the people that helped me, specifically Meridian Prime, Slate Sadpony and Cerulean Starlight. They have done a smashing job in hammering this thing in shape.

Any errors and problems you'll find will probably originate from me tuning stuff behind their backs.