When Princess Luna and Twilight began dating, no one was more excited than Celestia. For Faust’s sake, she even threw a party. Not a Pinkie Pie party, but a Princess Celestia party. Homemade cake, homemade cupcakes, at least two parade floats and a hot air balloon ride that was somehow hidden from teh greater Equestrian population. The reason being was clear: After a thousand years, Princess Luna, known for being a recluse even before her banishment, had found love in Celestia’s pupil, and Celestia’s pupil, a known recluse herself before discovering the magic of friendship, had begun to find the magic of love. This called for the celebration of celebrations, and the greatest of support.
Now, even Celestia knew when wingmareing could get overbearing, and after two weeks of incessantly reminding Luna about date ideas that Twilight was thinking about since she was a foal and her favorite hobbies and books as conversation starters, she let the two of them relax for a week or two as she prepared her next scheme to connect them closer together. Even if it was physically impossible to have actual nieces, she wanted mental nieces. To be able to cherish the thought that for all eternity, her sister would be able to find the love she was never able to claim.
So why was it then, that within those two weeks, she found her pupil standing before her with tears streaming down her face, asking her what the meaning of love was?
“Twilight, what do you mean?” Asked Celestia, whose golden magic was already preparing the best of accommodations for her student, pillows, blankets, chairs, and tables set up exactly as she had them since she was a foal, away from the stuffiness of the traditional royal interior decorating setup. At this moment, she feared for the worst.
“Is my sister hurting you?” She asked sternly, judging Twilight’s body language in an attempt to ensure that even if she lied with her words, which she would never do, her face and hooves would betray her.
“No, Celestia, It’s just that..” Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes, relaxing in a veritable throne of pillows and blankets. “I’m not sure if I love her like she loves me. It’s all just so CONFUSING!” Twilight stated.
“When we talk, it feels like I never have the correct words to say, conversations jumping left and right, stopping and starting. Sometimes I feel this horrid generational gap between me and someone who, although a thousand of those years were spent on the moon, has far more wisdom and experience than I do and I’m scared each moment I’m disappointing her.” Twilight continued. Celestia could notice she was about to fall into an unending spiral of thought, interrupting her casually.
“Are you sure it’s not simply nervousness?” She asked. “From what I understand of the subject, It’s perfectly normal to be awkward around the one you love. If Luna is the Luna I’ve known and loved, she adores you all the same, and likely understands your frustrations.”
“But Celestia, that’s exactly the problem. I know she loves me. I don’t know if I love her. At least, I don’t know if I love her more than I love you, or my brother, or Cadance, or the girls or the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I don’t know if I love Luna like a friend, a sibling, or a lover, and I don’t know how I’d prove it either way.” Twilight said, her left eyebrow furrowing. That hadn’t happened since the first week after she hatched Spike, where she attempted to repeat the trick to Celestia to ‘prove it wasn’t just a fluke’.
“Twilight, I’m afraid I can’t give you the answer you need, or at least, not all of it.” Celestia began, magically levitating a massive tome that despite being immaculately maintained, had to be at least two thousand years old judging from the changes in Ponish compared to the modern ways of speaking. “Move closer, Twilight, you’ll want to see this.” Twilight did so, scootching towards Celestia as she was still on her pillow throne. Celestia flipped to the first page, revealing a picture of a suede eath pony stallion with short, light brown hair and a cutie mark of a golden spyglass. On the corner of the photograph was a nearly illegible date.
“Photographs? But I thought those weren’t invented until recently. Well, they’re still pretty old but, not two thousand years old,” remarked Twilight. “This had to be created with an old-timey spell, right?”
“Correct, Twilight. And a dangerous one at that. If you aren’t too careful, your memories can be lost in the pages forever,” Celestia continued flipping pages, now at a rapid rate. Soon, the faces and dates became a blur, each individual melding into a collective as the book closed as soon as it began, all of the uncountable pages of ponies and other creatures Celestia had met since Luna’s banishment and the years they encompassed being crossed within an instant.
“Twilight, my form of Love is one you should never give to Luna alone. It is not the love I show to you nor my sister. It is the love of a princess to her subjects, a duty, not a romance. It is more akin to the love of a parent or child, only in my case I’m more akin to an absentee. My love to my little ponies is seen and felt through my actions and words, and yet it is colder than any other love I could give.” Celestia stated.
“Then, what kind of love should I give to Luna? And how am I supposed to know if I even have it?” Twilight asked. The tears had now dried, but she wasn’t satisfied with such an empty answer.
“I’d imagine Cadance would be better at that question than I. Why not consult her?”
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. The Princess of Love and co-ruler of The Crystal Empire. Of course, with such a title and the magnitude of her position, she took it to herself to understand the most she possibly could on the aspect of pony society that she embodied. She studied the science of love itself, from the difference in chemicals in one's sweat when viewing somepony they find attractive to the slowing and calming of heartrates when embraced by someone you're sweet on. She studied the way that the ponies of The Crystal Empire looked at somepony they loved and compared it to the way they looked at somepony they didn't. She studied the differences between the glints and glimmers in eyes when looking deep into the soul of one's prospective partners and how that differed from the look a mare or stallion would give to their colt.
She studied love in the magical sense, in the myriad of ways that sorcerers of the past tried to master love and command it to their bidding, and the ways in which they failed and succeeded. Alchemists could mix a potion that forced at the very least a sexual attraction, but even the greatest of potion masters could not say that they could create love. Even if they could mix the exact batch of chemicals, tinctures, and herbs that could induce the exact same physical effects as love, they could not create it nonetheless. The spiritual nature of love was ephemeral to even the greatest of magicians and the most knowledgeable of alchemists, and it was this love that Cadence was luckily or unluckily a master of from the day she was born. Whether it be being an uncanny playground matchmaker to understanding what exactly would make or break a relationship in the modern-day, she was attuned to Love like Twilight was attuned to Magic itself. Although, Cadence could imagine Twilight being the first unicorn to master love itself. That was just how she operated, after all.
This assumption was only further justified when Twilight and Princess Luna revealed their love for one another. Celestia threw a giant party, and both Twilight and Luna seemed so incredibly happy. Cadence chose not to bring it up at the time for fear of being rude, but her magic wouldn't stop bugging her on that day, trying to warn her of something wrong
with Luna and Twilight's love. Not an issue of incompatibility in the partners themselves or a lack of love between them, but some horrid mix of multiple forms of love mixing together, an incohesive mass of platitudes and pleasantries without the true fiery passion of eternal romance. Cadence figured that it had to have been a mixup, a pony from outside having an argument with their spouse. Something like that could never have happened to Twilight or Luna.
So why was it then, that during the witching hour, Twilight and Celestia appeared in Cadence's bedroom with a POP! and a burst of light bright enough to wake both her and Shining Armor? And more importantly, why did Celestia disappear right after, bringing another round of that horrid transportation spell with her? Cadence, and Shining Armor, now in their sleep-deprived states, chose not to dwell on those matters, and instead focus on the pony in front of them.
"Twily? 's that you?" Stated Shining Armor, whose eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the rapid change in brightness.
"Dear, of course it's her. I can't imagine what would bring her to The Crystal Empire on such short notice, though, and with Celestia in tow? Is it another changeling attack? Sombra's return?" Cadence began to worry, Twilight, as much as she loved her, was a bad omen in a sense. Her appearing uninvited was typically a sign of dangerous times to come.
Shining Armor began to don his armor at record speeds, only stopped from calling the guard to mobilize by his sister's magic.
"Brother, Cadence, I want to learn about love. Not the love you show me as members of your family, or the love that you and Cadence give to your subjects or soldiers, but the love between two special someponies. Could you please show it to me?" Twilight pleaded.
"Show it to her?" Shining Armor asked, sweat dripping down his brow. "Sweetie, I know you said in our relationship I'd have to be open in the bedroom, but I don't think I can show what we do to my little sister," he joked, receiving a chuckle before a glare from his significant other. These were serious matters.
"Pardon him, Twilight. Love is a beautiful, magical mixing of the souls of two special someponies when they establish trust and affection for each other beyond what they'd give to a friend. In a way, it's almost like an addiction. You just can't stop thinking about them, you connect everything in your life with them, and you start to wonder how they might feel about the things that you enjoy, and you believe you can share with them the fact that you do that." Cadence said.
"Yeah Twily, when I'm on guard duty, I just can't stop thinking about Cadence, and the affection I feel for her is different from the pride or sacrifice I give to my soldiers. I want her to love me as much as I love her, and want to make sure she thinks about me as much as I think about her. I value her time as much as my own, and make myself a better person in order to be the kind of stallion that can do that for her." Shining Armor added.
"In a way, love is sacrifice. Sacrificing your time to exactly one pony for as long as you can make the love last. To hold the flaming embers of passion in your heart and keep them even when they're only embers, so that even in the darkest moment, the arguments, the conflicts, it reignites and all is whole again, the two of you, or perhaps more, can keep moving on." Finished Cadence.
"But...how is that different from what I feel with the girls? Whenever I hear a funny joke, I think about how Pinkie Pie might laugh at it. When I see a wonderbolts show, I can imagine Rainbow Dash flying through the exact routine. Clothes? Rarity. Animal? Fluttershy. That doesn't seem to be very different from how you two always think about each other. For my friends, I was willing to sacrifice everything time and time again, even my own life. How is that different from the sacrifice you and Shining Armor give to each other?" Twilight said, clearly unsure of herself. "How can I be certain I'm giving Princess Luna a Love, a part of myself that I'm giving to no one else?"
"Twilight. Who said you had to?" Said Cadence. Twilight paused, the gears turning in her mind. She knew that Love was special. Very special. Powerful enough at least as a magical source to be desired by hordes of sorcerers both good and evil. So how could it possibly be that she could share the same exact love with Luna as she did with the girls? For a moment, it seemed as though something dawned on her before POP! She disappeared, leaving Cadance and Shining Armor with the worst headache and sleep of their lives.
Pinkie Pie
How Pinkie Pie ever managed to sleep was a scientific marvel. The sugar and caffeine she consumed on a daily, nay, hourly basis should be enough to either kill a pony or induce a sleep coma immediately upon a crash and yet she managed to party all day and all night. It was one of the many oddities of Pinkamena Diane Pie, and one that Princess Luna studied first hand. As the Princess of the Night and protector of dreams, Princess Luna understood the difference between personas a pony put on during the day and during the night. Everypony had a difference to them when they roamed around their own subconscious. Everypony except Pinkie Pie.
The party pony was as hyper in a dream as she was awake, the strength of lucidity within her powerful enough to throw Luna off her guard on multiple occasions. Luckily, the pony had never had a nightmare Luna could remember besides the Tantabus incident, for otherwise, the princess of the night would be unsure if she could navigate the dream fast enough to save her. This time, however, Princess Luna needed Pinkie Pie to save her.
To say Luna and her marefriend, Twilight Sparkle had a falling out would be both a major over and understatement. Overstatement in that the falling out itself was very tame, made known not with an intense argument or conflict of interests but in a two hour moment of silence in which neither pony seemed capable of starting a conversation, engaging in activity, or simply being with each other. It wasn't that each other's interactions weren't positive, it's that they weren't Love. They didn't have the strength and fuel the two believed love should have, and so they both said their temporary, tear-stained goodbyes as they looked for a permanent solution to their problems. Ironically enough, both Luna and Twilight turned to others to help define what love truly was.
"Pinkie Pie" shouted Luna, booming the royal canterlot voice throughout Pinkie's chaotic dreamscape, only to find a pink hoof booping her nose and a Pinkie Pie appearing from her mane. The Pinkie Pie in question craned her neck down toward Luna, smiling.
"Princess Luna! Oh my GOSH am I happy to see you! Now I can finally throw you that party that you were missing!" Pinkie Pie practically shouted, comically bouncing off of Luna's mane and onto the floor. "I know Celestia already threw you and Twilight that big massive party because she wanted to celebrate her sister's big day in her own way but in my opinion, Celestia wouldn't mind a second one right? Right?" Pinkie Pie 'asked'.
"Actually," Luna sighed, "I am here precisely because of the issue of me and Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, unable to look Pinkie Pie in the eyes.
"I fear what I have done to Twilight Sparkle is unforgivable. May I ask for the...other Pinkie Pie?" Luna asked. Almost immediately, the dreamscape shifted to a dreary grey, the chaos stopped on a dime, and Pinkie's trademark hair completely straightened out. There was still a smile on her face, however.
"What's the problem?" Asked Pinkamena Diane Pie. "You need to put Twilight in a body-bag? It'll be hard to get a new Bearer for the element of magic but I'm sure that tree can cough SOMETHING up." Pinkie said with the same chilling smile.
Luna, bewildered, paused for a moment before she began to open her mouth, only to be rudely interrupted by Pinkamena. "I'm just messing with you. You should see the LOOK on your FACE." The smile remained the same.
"Seriously though, what's up?" Pinkamena asked. "What could possibly get in the way of Equestria's greatest power couple?"
"I fear that neither me nor Twilight have no idea on what love is whatsoever. I was hoping to get your thoughts on the matter."
"You'll need Pinkie for that, then. No idea why you called me unless you're trying to give the author more work, silly." The hair flooded back in waves, curls where there shouldn't be curls appearing as the happiness reappeared within the dreamscape, and the controlled chaos of Pinkie Pie's mind returned to the forefront.
"Love is like a really really really realllllllllllllllllllllllllllly big brownie, yknow? It makes you sick to your stomach but with each bite you just can't get enough. One stomach isn't big enough to handle the job but you still want to finish it so you get someone you really trust to hold onto some of the brownie for later so you can both finish it together. Now, this bronie trade can get really complicated if you're not familiar with the business. Sometimes only one side wants a specific part of the bronie, we call em edge-casers where I'm from, and on occasion a schism can form large enough that the brownie never gets shared in the first place, and someone ends up with more or less love than they needed. The bronie might end up in a court custody case and those can get REALLY messy and then the two people that originally stated they were going to share the brownie equally might get bitter and resentful and ruin the brownie in the process in their hatred for each other, creating a twisted, malignant soul with two personalities" Stated Pinkie Pie.
Princess Luna, who somehow took the best parts of that paragraph and nothing else was slightly cheered by Pinkie's description of love, but not satisfied by it.
"Pinkie Pie, your description of love is as frightening as it is binding, but it is powerful, beautiful love nonetheless. I shall see if your other friends corroborate. Farewell." And so, she flew off into the next dream.
Rainbow Dash
The backdrop for the next dream was the perfect day. Clear, sunny skies with only expertly placed clouds in sight. The wind was cool and at the perfect speed for stunt training. The only pony in sight was the one and only Rainbow Dash, and the only thing stopping her from receiving the trophy of her dreams in her dreams, was the greatest obstacle course of all time.
Eighteen sharp turns between cloud rings, fiveteen instances in which the pegasus would have to dive down and then up again with almost no time spent changing directions, twelve straight finishes where each flap of the wings would count towards the time on the clock, and to top it all off, you had to do it all while mimicking a preexisting wonderbolts routine. A challenge that would be impossible for any mare or stallion unless their name started with Rainbow and ended with Dash and they had a rainbow colored mane and blue coat. Only one mare in the world could pull all of that off.
One mare and Princess Luna, that is. She quickly flew to the beginning of the race against the clock with Rainbow Dash and began to complete the obstacle course with her. She took the sharpest of sharp turns, dived as powerful downward as she did upward, and even mimicked the only wonderbolt stunt routine she had ever seen, and ended up at last place, as expected. An alicorn's body, especially an alicorn as developed as Princess Luna, was certainly not meant to squeeze through cloud rings designed for trained athletes, and although she managed to make Rainbow Dash break a sweatm it wasn't enough to get that win. This was Rainbow Dash's dream after all.
"Say Princess, what brings you here to my dream anyway?" Asked Rainbow Dash, who was hiding a pant along with any other signs of fatigue. It was way cooler to beat Princess Luna if she could say she did it without getting tired, even if It was in her dreams.
"Rainbow Dash, what is love to you?" Asked Princess Luna through dying breaths, clutching her heaving chest as she slowly got back on their hooves and refilled the air she had just lost.
"Love is like....love is like....love is like when you get that itch that you can't scratch, and no matter how much you train your flexibility or move your wings out of the way or roll around on the floor you just can't get to leave you alone until you ask someone else to find it," said Rainbow Dash.
"Of course in my case, I can get 99% of my itches by myself, but it's always good to have someone covering your back," she clarified.
"And Pinkie Pie compared it to a giant brownie with parental issues. Are all of Twilight's friends so animated?" asked Luna with the utmost honesty.
"No, that's just me and Pinkie Pie probably. Why not ask Rarity or the others their opinion? Not that it'll be as cool as mine just y'know..give yourself options," Rainbow Dash said before heading off to beat her time for the next course. Princess Luna could guess that the love Rainbow Dash had trouble articulating could be expressed in her constant state of self-improvement and endless self-confidence, someone who loves themself and the ones around them enough to want to be their best for them. She wondered if Twilight was the same way. Those thoughts were carried with her as she traveled to the next dream.
AppleJack
Our resident Princess found herself within Sweet Apple Acres, only there was no Apple orchard to speak of, or at least not one on the scale to be expected of Ponyville's premier farm family. A plot of land only big enough to support the barn attached to it and a bit more, definitely not something that could sustain an entire town. Princess Luna spotted Applejack leaned next to a tree nearby, resting for the next day's harvest. With a subtle use of her magic, Luna gently shook the farmpony awake.
"Whuzzzat...who's at mah farm? That you, Princess Luna?" It was odd to see a pony that was sleeping even in their dream. Luna had only seen a case like this in ponies facing exhaustion enough to send them to an early grave, but Applejack couldn't possibly be in that situation, right?
"Although I originally intended to ask you an important question, it seems I must do my duty to you first, Applejack. What could possibly have you troubled so, that you sleep even in one's dreams?" Luna asked.
"What? Oh, you've got it all mixed up, Princess. Ah ain't sleeping on this tree because I need a break, Ah'm sleeping because the work's finally done. Take a looksie for yourself, see what Ah'm talking about." Luna did so, gazing beyond the now diminutive apple orchard and to the greater Ponyville area as a whole. She saw a bustling town in which despite the orchard's size decreasing, sweet apple acres' influence could still be seen in every crevice of the town. Apples, apples, apples of various colors, shapes, and sizes being sold. While they weren't being sold by the Apple family directly, they still were the Apple family's apples, modified to the modern day.
Over by the Carousel Boutique Luna could see grown-up versions of Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo talking like they always had and probably thinking of some way to get into trouble. The town was, in effect, exactly the same as it had always been, yet Sweet Apple Acres was able to lower it's scale, remaining as more of a time capsule to an older part of the town than a necessary part of it's existence.
"Sweet Apple Acres ain't about working on this orchard forever. It was about the Apple family and their cousins making a place for themselves where there was no place. Nowadays, or at least in the nowadays that ah'm dreaming of, you won't need a giant orchard to do it. Now Princess, what was your question?" asked Applejack?
"I was going to ask you your idea on love." Stated Luna, still enraptured by the simplistic beauty of the timeliness Ponyville, and likely just as timeless Equestria she could see within Applejack's dream.
Applejack laughed. "Shouldn't you be a better judge on that than me, Princess? Given that you're the one with the charming marefriend and all." Luna's facial expressions gave it all away. "All right then, I'll tell it to you honestly. To me, love is two parties sacrificing themselves for one another. Love is mah granny smith giving up her old life to set up a new one for her family and her family's family, and my sacrifice to my sister, and my hope that that sacrifice will lead to a life easier for the entire Apple family by the time I'm done and buried." Applejack stated with a tear in her eye, her dream twinkling in her eye.
"Applejack, that is a noble pursuit. I only wished that I could see that in someone else." Stated Luna before flying away to the next dream. There were two more to go.
Rarity
Rarity was found as easily as the rest, centered within Caoursel Boutique talking to her sister Sweetie Belle about a cute boy that had caught her sister's eye. Rarity had the same crazed look any big sister did when gossiping about the latest romance, her pupils practically screaming "tell me more!". Not one to interrupt people in the middle of a conversation, Luna chose to eavesdrop. That was far more sensible.
"Sis, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but I don't like him THAT much. I don't even know what love means." said Sweetie Belle, audibly rolling her eyes.
"Now that just won't do Sweetie Belle. It's known that a colt can wait only two more days than you can when it comes to love. It's either you tell him you like him or you tell him you don't." Rarity said.
"Then how am I supposed to know that I actually like him? That it's not some stupid crush like the other ones?" Sweetie Belle said.
"You'll just have to take the dive and find out sister. By getting to know him as he is, away from his friends and any other societal pressures will you see him for who he'll be when speaking with you. When you can be with him at his best and his worst, and only believe that you're feeling at your best even during rough patches, that's love." Rarity said. That was about when Luna left to the next dream, satisfied with the answer.
Fluttershy
Fluttershy's door was already open when Luna arrived within her dream, allowing her to walk inside with little to no fuss.
What kind of dream involved the typically shy pony keeping her door open for any and all to see was unbeknownst to Luna, but it aided in her quest to discover the meaning of love. In hindsight, she should've been more worried on what Fluttershy feeling this open entailed.
Upon entering the cottage, Luna saw Fluttershy on full display, somehow more naked than a pony usually was while within her own home. Fluttershy locked eyes with Luna. The two shared gazes for three long minutes. Luna swallowed, attempting to silently judge the correct time to ask her question. Deciding that the situation was so awkward that nothing was going to make this right, she went for it.
"Fluttershy, what is the meaning of love?" Said Luna, almost tripping over her words with the rapid rate in which she said it.
"When you feel trusting enough to show Everything to someone else, even the parts that you'd never show to anyone else. When you're an open door to that person alone, that's love. Now please, get out of my dream." Said Fluttershy, her cheeks flaming from within. Luna was satisfied with that answer, quickly entering the final dream and reawakening within her section of the castle, leaving her face-to-face with her marefriend.
