“I’m sorry, but the only copy we have is from the reserves, and that has been checked out,” the librarian told me.
“Oh,” I replied.
The reading room was nearly empty, which only happens once in a blue moon, and I was looking forward to a productive day of studying without the huge doors slamming every fifteen minutes and breaking my concentration. But now it has been ruined just like everything else.
“Aw, don’t be so sad,” she said. Is there something on my face? “See that mare at the far table by the shelves? She’s the one who checked it out. Don’t you two know each other? Perhaps you could share it.”
I sighed. “Thanks,” I muttered, and turned around to trot towards the table. In truth, I was not sure I could recognize the mare. There wasn’t much there to recognize, as her face was obscured so completely by the stacks of books on her table, that I couldn’t even see her mane color.
“Excuse me?” I whispered. There was no reply for a moment. I softly tapped the table with a hoof.
“Sorry, did you say something?” a whisper came back, and the owner of the whisper peeked at me from between the stacks of books with a very familiar bloodshot eye of a pony who was using coffee and donuts to replace sleep entirely for the past few days.
I recoiled in surprise. That was certainly a face I knew. That was a face I was working on forgetting. I was actually making progress, and seeing it again undid all that progress in an instant.
Have you come back to hurt me again, Twilight Sparkle?
“You took out the only copy of ‘Neighomachean Ethics,’” I whispered back, collecting myself. I’m not going to show it. I’m going to pretend I didn’t recognize you and maybe, the problem will go away. “I was hoping that you’re done with it.”
“Not yet, I’m sorry,” Twilight smiled apologetically. “But I certainly don’t mind sharing it… And since you seem to be a fellow scholar of philosophy, would you mind helping me with a hypothetical problem?”
I felt my eyebrow twitch. Looks like she didn’t recognize me at all. Should I be happy about that?… Whatever. Let me just answer her stupid question and maybe I get the book. “What kind of a problem?”
Twilight bit her lip. “Imagine, that you have in your possession an absolute dark magic neutralizer, capable of purifying anything, and a pony who was turned by dark magic into something hostile and malicious, who declares an intent to conquer Equestria, but isn’t doing much right now…” she started.
Ah, that kind of hypothetical. I think I know where this is going. “It takes a very special kind of philosopher to wonder if it is ethical to liberate a pony who was corrupted into evil.” In practice, most questions are about the reliability of reformation spells, not about the ethics of their application.
She sighed, “Yes, I’ve read ‘Alternatives to Punishment’ too. But imagine that here, you have somepony so evil, that they won’t survive the purification. Not in any kind of philosophical sense, not in terms of identity, but literally. What remains once the dark magic is removed will be incapable of sustaining life.”
“That’s just another version of the trolley problem,” I replied. “The one where if you don’t pull the lever, five ponies die, but if you do pull the lever, one pony dies. There is no good solution, you just have to choose something and accept the responsibility. Seeing as you’re including ‘Neighomachean Ethics’ in your research, that’s not all of it, I presume,” I said. Back in Aristrotle’s time, ponies would still occasionally wage war against other ponies, and when faced with this sort of question, they would just pick the lesser evil and roll with it, instead of debating the ethics of the choice itself.
“Yes,” she nodded. “And here’s the catch: To use the absolute neutralizer, you need the agreement of your five close friends. You know that they support your decision, whatever it is, but you’re the one making the decision, and you don’t even have an opportunity to ask them, the decision needs to be made right now.”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded again.
“So, assuming that you decide to use it…” she paused to rub an eye with her fetlock. “Is it ethical to do this to your friends or not?”
I felt my heart skip a beat and every word I knew fail me, simultaneously. How… How dare she?! I spent some time fishing for something to answer with, but she didn’t even seem to notice. Finally, taking a very deep breath, I told her, “I think I know the correct answer. But first, let me present you with my own hypothetical.”
“Sure,” she agreed. “You never know what gives you a new idea.”
I made the sweetest fake smile that I could. I’m not sure I can get back at her with that. I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do. But if I am to ever get some closure, I need to try, and then, I can get back to studying and put the whole thing behind me.
“So imagine that you have a friend,” I started, feeling the unwanted rage slowly but surely well up somewhere inside. “One of the few ponies who is capable of understanding you on an intellectual level, and if there is anypony whose approval you would rather have, that would be hers.”
She perked her ears up, whispering, “Oh, a friendship problem!”
I ignored that, and continued, “Some of your former classmates are pressuring you into social activities you find no comfort in, and you finally give in. You decide to have a birthday party they advise, in hopes that your friend likes it. Public picnic in a park, table full of sweets, everything, even though it causes you considerable anxiety. But you still do it, because everypony insists that is how ponies should be friends.”
She nodded vigorously. She thinks it’s just a distraction from her own problem. No, Twilight, this has been my problem, and now I will make it yours.
“Your friend promises to come, and then, she never does,” I continued. “Trying to figure out what’s wrong, you try to get in touch again, but find that she moved away without even saying goodbye.” Twilight’s ears drooped slightly, and I felt grim satisfaction mixing in with the rage. “Moons pass, and you’re counting every hour, but she never even writes. You try to forget the embarrassment and move on.”
“That’s… a very sad story, but it doesn’t sound like a hypothetical problem,” she commented, blinking her sleepy eyes. Did I hear that voice waver, or was it just my imagination?
“It’s not done yet,” I replied, trying my best to keep my own voice level and neutral. “Moons pass, and suddenly, you bump into her in a public place. She acts like a total stranger, and doesn’t even recognize you. And then… then she asks you a hypothetical question about friendship. What should you do?”
She looked away. I can almost hear the gears grinding. “I… I would probably be very angry with her. I would demand she tell me her reasons, at least.”
“Well, Twilight Sparkle!” I shouted, slamming my hooves into her table and sending the books flying. “Tell me your reasons, you traitor!”
I don’t think I will ever forget that face, now. The look of being shaken awake, the slowly dawning realization, the recollection, the pupils reducing to a tiny point, the mane hairs curling up as the ears fold. For a moment, I finally felt happy. I hated myself for it, but it was worth it.
Until tears welled up in her eyes and fell down in a near literal torrent. “I’m sorry!” Twilight wailed, slamming her head into the table, and splattering me.
I expected a lot of reactions. Excuses, denials, or even an actual explanation, I always knew her to be a rational pony, so that’s not out of the question, but this… This, I did not expect. I threw a glance in the direction of the librarian, expecting to see her stomping towards us with a stern face, asking us to vacate the premises – that would be really bad – but instead, found her hiding behind her counter and peeking at us. I might have to find another library. I liked it here so much…
“I’m sorry,” Twilight continued sobbing, and looking at her, suddenly, all my anger at her evaporated like a drop of liquid oxygen. I’ve seen a lot of Twilight Sparkle. I have seen her triumphant, frustrated to the point of hysterics, happy and sad over things nopony but us two cared about, or even understood, excited to explain something she just read ten minutes ago, annoyed at ponies breaking her out of her zone. I have never, ever, seen Twilight’s admission of defeat. Twilight doesn’t do defeat.
Until now.
“Don’t cry… please, just don’t cry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled like that. I… I forgive you.” I’m not entirely sure what these words truly mean. Learned them sometime in my fillyhood and never really paused to grasp the deeper meaning. I’m not sure anypony else does either. But at least… “I just want to know why,” I said.
But she kept weeping, with no sign of stopping. For a few seconds, I fought the impulse to just grab the book and go somewhere else, but eventually I quelled it and sat on the bench beside her to wait.
It took her at least three more minutes to finally calm down. And when she did, her first words, punctuated by desperate sniffles, were, “My story wasn’t really a hypothetical, either.”
My eyebrows twitched. “You mean to say you have an actual absolute dark magic neutralizer?” No such thing exists. And the Twilight I know wouldn’t lie to me like that. Which leaves only one reasonable option, she must have gone insane.
That would explain a lot of things, but it’s also unfalsifiable.
“Not exactly. But that’s one of the things the Elements of Harmony do,” she replied plainly.
The Royal Scientific Society devoted an entire monograph of articles to everything that had to do with the return of Princess Luna, they even had reports from the few wizards who were permitted to examine the relics. Suddenly her statement seemed much less implausible. She is Princess Celestia’s personal student. She could probably get to examine them just by asking.
“Still sounds very hypothetical,” I said. “Who would that evil pony be?”
“Chrysalis, queen of the changelings.”
“The who?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “Aren’t they extinct?”
Twilight looked at me suspiciously. “…Just where did you spend last Friday night?”
“Studying at home,” I replied. “There was some kind of loud celebration outside, and somepony knocked on my door, but I decided I deserve a break and didn’t open.”
Only when I closed my mouth, I realized. Dents on my front door. Emergency workers in the streets. Broken windows. Tarpaulins. My favorite library, empty. “What did you choose?” I asked, my voice trembling against my will.
“I hesitated,” Twilight whispered and looked at me, “And she killed my brother.”
She couldn’t look more like a stereotypical madpony from a Third Celestial Era romance if she tried, right now, with those bloodshot eyes and coat messed up by tears.
“I’m… sorry,” I said, not sure how to react.
“…and then his fiancée brought him back from the dead with the power of love,” Twilight concluded.
The absurdity boggles the mind. And yet… I still cannot believe Twilight would just lie to me.
Twilight sank onto the table. “I remember now. I didn’t want to go to your party. I didn’t know what they’re for. So when I got a mission from Princess Celestia, I just… forgot about it.”
I sank onto the table next to her. How stupid I was. “I should have never listened to Minuette,” I mumbled. “She was so sure you would like that party…”
“Not back then,” Twilight said. “But on that mission, I met five wonderful ponies and together, we found the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon with the magic of friendship.”
Magic?…
I looked at her from the corner of my eye. “So those ‘six heroic civilians who wish to remain anonymous’ were…?”
“Princess Celestia personally asked the editors of every Canterlot newspaper to keep our names out of it,” Twilight confirmed. “I’ve been living in Ponyville since, and it’s been eventful like you wouldn’t believe. I still have my regular coursework, but I’ve got an entirely new field of study on my hooves, and it’s like the world conspires to twist my perception of reality every week. Usually, on Tuesdays. And by the end of the week, I had to send in a detailed report.”
She reached into her messenger bag for a hankie and tried to clean her face. It didn’t help much. “The last couple of months were particularly hectic. We fought Discord… We won, in the end, but it got really bad. I missed a deadline on that report, Pinkie was trying so hard to make us smile that she forgot her own birthday, Applejack nearly got her little sister eaten by a chimera, Fluttershy tried to attend a self-improvement seminar and scared half the town…” She glanced at me. “…I sound crazy, don’t I? If I mention that I met myself from the future, the mess we made of the Grand Galloping Gala, or the aliens… It’s so crazy when you tell it all like that.”
I covered my face with my hooves and said nothing. All my problems seem so petty, now.
“I know that’s not really an excuse,” Twilight said after a pause. “In a way, all of that was unavoidable, but that’s not really an excuse, either. I… just want to make it up to you, somehow. It feels like I went away on some grand adventure and just… left you by the wayside. Just… Can we start this meeting over? What were you doing all this time?”
“Studying,” I muttered, without peeking out. “Minuette and Twinkleshine still try to invite me to something or other, and I wish they would just stop.”
I could practically feel her stare on my skin. “Partying isn’t the only thing you can do with friends,” she said. “That’s one of the important things I learned while being friends with such different ponies.”
“Well, I don’t have any friends who like studying,” I snapped at her.
“Would you like one?” Twilight replied, not flinching. “Because I still want to be your friend, if I you let me.”
Now that is a bit more like the Twilight I remember.
“Yes,” I said.
Her response was wrapping me up in a hug with a happy smile. “Oh, and happy really, really late birthday.”
I adjusted the glasses she nearly knocked off me. “Thanks…” That felt much better than it had any right to feel. “I suppose you want my answer to your ‘hypothetical’ too, now.”
“…So you actually have one?”
“Yes,” I replied. “In the end, your amendment is irrelevant. It’s still the trolley problem with all the caveats. Since your friends have already delegated their decisions to you, they already share in the result and the responsibility, no matter what you choose. And not doing anything is a choice, too.”
She squeezed me tighter, and for a moment, I felt like she’s holding on to me so that the wind won’t blow her away.
Taking into account everything she said, she probably was.
Yay! Yay! This one's uploaded! This one's uploaded!
Please banish from your mind any images of me staring at this like an excited puppy dog. They're the truth, mind you, but still!
(Also, particularly love the line "I don't have any friends who like STUDYING, hmph.") Oh moondancer, I've been there.
Oh wow, trust Moondancer to be the one to not notice an actual invasion.
Also, that confrontation and making up with Twilight was delightfully heart-wrenching.
Tuesdays are sometimes harsh things, after all.
You know, I'll be legitimately sad whenever this story's done.
But until then, I'll enjoy the ride, wherever that takes me!
Well this one is an emotional heavy hitter.
I love that even when seething with fury, Moondancer still nails the answer. I've always prided myself on pragmatism, and felt that if I was in that situation I could pull the lever and sleep like a baby that night. It's just simple math obscured by the phallacy of inaction. But then, I'm not a pony.
Dang it Oliver, why did you make me relive this? It's a gut punch to the feels every single time!
It's widely established that ponies are incredibly forgiving. But what if its just that ponies are no more invulnerable to a sad pone face than humans are? I mean, how many readers would forgive Twilight on the spot for anything if it would make her perk up her ears again?
Are the absolute though? I mean, Discord and Luna (the first time) were more put in deep freeze than cleansed of dark magic. I wonder what's stronger, the EoH or Chryssie's chair?
Moondancer nails it again. I guess Twilight's trying to second-guess herself on her decision, but hopefully rekindling her friendship will distract her a bit.
And it looks like just like Shining Armor and Cadance, Twilight is drawing a lesson here that she needs to hit faster and harder. I almost pity Sombra, he's gonna have a bad time.
7666004 Moondancer is Napstablook of ponies.
7666869
I’m not sure if I’m going to find a good spot in the story for an exposition dump about that, so I might as well explain my take on how the Elements actually work:
The Elements are not sapient, but sentient in a limited fashion, capable of perceiving emotional states of the wielders and determining if they are sincere about following the virtue they represent in the equation. They do get to decide whether they work or not, they get to pick who wields them, and they get to reject the wielders completely if they stray too far.
Purification, in a near-religious sense – this world does have objective evil, after all – is just the default setting, and they are capable of a variety of effects, like banishment/sealing and turning to stone, or more utilitarian energy transformations like the one Star Swirl’s spell used.
The purification setting requires the wielders to “invest” virtue proportional to the power of the evil to be purified, which is why, alone, Celestia could banish Nightmare Moon, but not purify her back into Luna. Since the very act made her doubt her virtue, she was no longer capable of using them at all after that. The relationship between how virtuous the user(s) need to be and how big an opponent the Elements can take on is different for different desired effects.
The effects are at least partially under the control of the wielder of the element of Magic, in that the elements will listen to their request on what exactly to do or not based on how sincere is the wielder in following the virtues of friendship, and then do it if they were convinced. They’re a bit fickle like that, being fruit of the Tree of Harmony, rather than anything pony-made.
Of course they aren’t exactly absolute, but ponies haven’t yet encountered an evil that would take a rainbow to the face and avoid being purified. It is possible to counter them in theory, which is one of the reasons Celestia keeps them under lock and key. It is also possible that ponies encounter something so evil, that the six wielders won’t have the power output to purify it in one shot.
Also, my guess is that Elements of Harmony would have issues firing within range of the darkstone throne of Chrysalis, and would require an appropriately dramatic feat of spirit to overpower it and get invoked anyway – maybe, a heartsong. Rainbow Power, being the next level up of the Elements, less reliant on material objects to manifest, would work regardless.
7666881 Yeah i'm on Conversation 8: Mary. And it's already making more sense
Ah, Tuesday. The most "meh" day of the week.
So, this is before they outright murder Sombra?
7669364
Strictly speaking, isn't that exactly what happens in canon anyway? :)
7669393
I wasn't joking.
7669434
Me neither. Think back to the scenes in the show and tell me, what do you think is actually happening when Sombra is defeated by a Crystal Heart blast?
Pretty cool couple of chapters.
7666925
So, in your theoretical model of how the Elements of Harmony work, what would you say was happening with Sunset Shimmer in the first Equestria Girls when she used the Element of Magic to become a demon?
7676518
Something more related to how Equestrian magic appears to work in general in Pedestria. (yes, I’m going to repeat this term until it takes) In every subsequent movie, concentration of sufficient quantities of Equestrian magic in a human induces insanity and distorts them into some variation on a demon, twisting their intentions, even if they are good or neutral, to something brutal. This happens three times out of four, so it’s pretty certain we’re dealing with a general rule of some kind – while friendship is magic in Equestria, for Pedestria this is clearly not entirely true, at least, not when it passed through the mirror.
It is probable that individual Elements have their own, individual functions, required to produce the synergistic effects. This never comes up in Equestria because they are never used individually, but it’s still plausible. If so, the Element of Magic is, when used by itself, the energy-to-magic converter, so it permits Sunset to go demon indirectly, but that is not at all related to its function.
P.S. As a side note, I find the theory that what Twilight (and in later movies, Sunset) uses to counter it is locally generated magic of friendship origin rather interesting in this regard, but I’ll need to think more about how this works.
7677139
It's plausible. Though, if becoming a demon is just the normal reaction to magic in the human world, then we have to start adding stipulations to explain things like Daydream Shimmer, or the continued functioning of the Elements for their original purpose, or even how the Dazzlings didn't go full demon. Not that they didn't have some scary transformations and powers too, but they weren't demonic.
EG magic in general is pretty convoluted, especially in the context of the show. It's gonna take some explaining. Do you have a grand unified theory of magic at all?
7677179
Alas, not yet. Working on it. :)
7677187
No? That's unlike you.
7678061
It's a complicated question, as I'm sure you're well aware. :)
7678073
Quite aware, yes.
Speaking about magical girls, here is a pony that has been introduced in the latest update to Gameloft MLP game:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/10/24/1280610__safe_clothes_screencap_dress_gameloft_sailor+moon_magical+pony.png
7682112
The outfit first appears in Scare Master, yes. :)
Having seen your reading of this word in canon…
You go, Moondancer.
7666925
I'm surprised this isn't out in a RTAC.
I find the best persuasive course for evil in this situation…is to act like there isn't such objectivity, unless the objectivity is easily-accessed (e.g. through prayer, Detect Evil)…and, of course, to be sure to invest in some cultural practices with lead sheets, or equivalent concealing magics. Use of a good-aligned item to help cause mis-reads like in that strip are a bonus.
And if so, then, well, ethics as a field kind of breaks down to trying to figure out things without consulting the Ethics Oracle, and that's somewhat less a problem.
Adopting so long as I can remember it…if I ever decide to use the EGU.
7730975
Yet.
Canonically, the objectivity is not accessed very easily. For example, there are no effective means for detecting a changeling in the primary timeline, because even if Zecora actually has the recipe she uses for the purpose in The Cutie Re-Mark, she clearly never felt the need to share it. During the battle in A Canterlot Wedding, Twilight unmasks a changeling somehow, but this probably happens because of them being rendered unconscious, and not for any direct reason.
But multiple quotes and incidents from many levels of canon media do imply that this objectivity exists. It’s possible that “dark magic” just strongly correlates with evil, and is not evil per se, but that’s mostly a matter of interpretation, there is otherwise no question that it acts as a corrupting force.
7738731
Well, depends on your chronology theory… But as far as I can tell, “three months of winter coolness” are, on average, much quieter than most other months. :)
“Princess Celestia personally asked the editors of every Canterlot newspaper to keep our names out of it,”
Tyrantlestia confirned, because only a pony willing to send thugs in barding with spears to smash their printing presses could keep the barons of the yellow press from printing something as juicy as that.
Pedestria
I'd go with Digitopia myself.
7903438
Actually, she came herself, and the shock of that was enough. ;)
This Equestria has yellow press, but does not quite have barons of such. Most of these live somewhere in the Triptych-verse, anyway.
7666869
I think Twilight will soon realize how valuable a friend Moondancer is- someone on the same tier of intellectual capability and education who can spot things that she accidentally overlooked.