"Hey."

Luna looked up from the bag of ketchup chips, her latest victim making an extremely inquisitive crunching noise as she looked at the Crystal Princess sitting across from her, basking in the afternoon sunshine that graced the castle tower's balcony. Luna knew that if she got up and pushed the other six unopened bags of equally ketchup-y chips aside she would find the city of Canterlot gleaming calmly below, but her attention was demanded elsewhere.

"Hey," Cadance repeated, voice distant. Luna doubted she was repeating herself because she didn't get a response and simply watched the pink mare lazily prop her head in one of her forehooves, gold shoes spilling onto the ground below where they were occasionally stirred by the breeze, as were the sprawling curls of Princess Cadance.

"Yes?" Luna said in between chips. The treat so common in northern Equestria was actually a rather nice modern invention, even to Luna, who found most modern treats other than candies to be rather bland.

"Whaddya think the meaning of life is?"

Luna cocked her head to the side and blinked in a manner much like an owl before giving a small smile that she reserved for the few ponies she favored outside of Celestia - a group that consisted only of Cadance. "I am a nihilist."

"Wow," Cadance's voice was chipper enough, but distracted as her bloodshot eyes gazed into the fluffy white clouds that drifted in the sky, "that sounds kinda gloomy. I mean, you're the night. No offense. Dark is kinda gloomy."

Cadance blinked, her vision suddenly looking even more distracted. "Are we all gloomy?"

Luna shrugged, clearly more interested in what exactly was in the small, strange smelling plant that Cadance found such pleasure in rolling up and lighting. It certainly wasn't tobacco, but the effect it had on Cadance was similar enough to the mushrooms consumed by Tribal warriors in an attempt to make them appear more fearsome. She chewed more chips in thought, maintaining her silent curiosity about the behavior of her friend.

"Why is it you ask, Cadance?"

"Call me Cady, yo."

Luna paused and nibbled another ketchup chip in thought. "Cady?" she said, pronunciation slow and deliberate.

"Yeah. That's me." She paused. "Seriously, Luna, what's life?"

"Life is only itself," Luna said, shrugging a second time and looking up at the sky. "It is both wonderful and terrifying, but it is life all the same."

"Who said that?" Cadance asked, forehoof fumbling in a gesture that clearly indicated she was to be passed a chip bag.

Luna obliged. "I did, just now. Is there something wrong...?"

"But-" Cadance's magic gripped the bag clumsily and Luna sighed lightly, taking it from the other mare and tearing it open carefully. Luna had seen far too many of this kind of packaging spill its contents when opened hastily. The sound it made - something almost like a belch, if your ears needed checked - seemed to delight Cadance who laughed at it rather buffoonish way.

"But what?" Luna offered when she was able to return to her own chip bag and it was clear Cadance's mind had almost lost track of what it is that she wanted to say.

"But does it mean anything?" Before Luna had a chance to respond, Cadance continued in her half-delirium. "You're smart. Can ya, like, explain?"

"Pardon?" Luna crunched another chip in mild confusion. "Cady, could you please be clearer with what it is that you are asking?"

Cadance blinked. "Oh, uh, yeah. It's just that, um. Okay, so you're a goddess and I'm not. Please. Explain life."

"Well..." Luna's magic rustled the interior of the chip bag in search of anything other than dust and the broken bits she could safely presume nopony liked. "Life is a lot like one's bedroom-"

Cadance's vacant look suddenly became lucid and she blinked her blood. "Oh my gods. That makes sense! The bed represents the eternal sleep of death and our possessions are but are broken dreams scattered around us, huh?"

"That's not-"

"And the windows are totally like the ocean to a greater whole that we only get in glimpses. Our closets are the lies we tell ourselves and-"

"I was going to say because they are often messy." Luna decided it was best to just offer Cadance another chip, which the pink princess accepted clumsily.

"Urgh. That just sucks. I mean..." Cadance's gaze grew distant once more. "We're all told we are gonna do super great things. I was going to be in a band. Before this." She aimed a forehoof in the direction of her horn. "It was art pop too."

Luna looked over to the side and contemplated the flavor of her latest ketchup chip while looking out at the clouds and pretending she knew what art pop was.

"Then I grew a horn and everything got weird."

"Doesn't it always?" Luna mused dryly.

"I could have been great. I was gonna be in a garage band..." Cadance sighed sadly. "Instead I'm ruling an empire. Oh, and I think I'm supposed to be a princess? I'm married. I think I'm a hero and..."

"What is wrong, dear Cady?" Luna nudged her with a chip that quickly disappeared into the pink mare's mouth.

"Dosh i' mean anything?" Cadance asked through a noisy mouthful of chip. Once she swallowed, she proceeded. "Like... I defeated a tyrant. But that was because my husband threw me and stuff."

"I am aware."

"And I saved ponies. And almost died."

"Mortals tend to do that," Luna reminded helpfully.

"The world is so scary, yo." Standing up and looking dizzy, Cadance looked out at the world with an expression between oblivious, unconcerned bliss and lucid existential terror. The strange bit of plant and paper she held was still grasped in her magic, but Luna thought that the breeze stirring Cadance's curls was far more interesting.

"It can be," Luna said softly.

"It's so big and mean. Like that one filly who used to take my candy money back in Wispgrove. Starlight Shimmer? The whole world... it feels like it's just her. But bigger."

"Have you been reading too much of those strange horror books you have been telling me about? They do far stranger things to you than that plant, to be honest."

"Are we even real?" Cadance whispered.

"I shall not bring up Day Carts or anything that shall complicate this matter. You are in a most strange intoxicated state, Cady."

"What if we are all just, like, magical holo-whats?"

"Holograms? Like a construct?"

"Like milk," Cadance said with conviction.

Luna emptied the last of her chip bag - it was naught but dust - onto the balcony and hoped some birds could make use of them. "Do you think we are all dust in the wind then, dreaming up some intangible fantasy that is our shared existence?"

"I like that song," the pink mare mused distantly.

"Again, I beg your pardon?" Luna busied herself opening another chip bag, in the back of her mind, she wondered if these weren't intended for her since Cadance had moved and Luna observed her as she walked over and grabbed a bag for herself, immediately stuffing her mouth full of ketchup chips.

"Am I useless?"

"You feel that you are." Luna said levelly. It wasn't a question. She simply looked at Cadance as calmly as possible while eating chips.

"I think..."

"Do something spontaneous. One does not need a use."

Cadance blinked blearily and frowned. "I just... I feel like I do."

"Then allow yourself to be responsible for your actions. Discover something both for yourself and about yourself." While Luna was content to eat chips one by one, she watched as Cadance, with sudden vigor in her previously relaxed stare, bury her muzzle into the chip bag.

But before she allowed the majority of her pink face to vanish within the depths, she floated that strange little roll over to Luna like a blood sibling would offer up a prized blade before a great battle. It was a testament of something beyond friendship and a gesture that Luna recognized well, even if she was hesitant to accept such a strange thing - she had seen Cadance use it, so that was not lost on her, but her confusion mostly stemmed from not knowing exactly what it was.

"What am I to do with this?" she asked Cadance, giving her a concerned glance.

The chip bag faced princess rustled - her new and bizarre form of communication - and from those rustles sprung words: "Smoke it, yo."

"Yes, but why must I? I still do not grasp the purpose to this activity."

"'Cause," the bag-princess grumbled, "I'm gonna be shtuck. You're gonna have to use your super magic to get me out."

To demonstrate, Cadance released her magical grip from the bag, which was indeed stuck to her face.

"And what does this have to do with my 'super magic'?"

Cadance didn't miss a beat before answering. "Everything."

This is totally the unofficial prequel to this.