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A Study on Chaos Theory

by Amber Spark

Chapter 7: Lunar Hypotheses

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“All the ponies in this room are crazy!” Moon Dancer shouted as her flank bumped into the corner.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Sunny smirked. “Now, stop fighting it!”

“Never!” Moon Dancer braced herself and reinforced her pink shield with another surge of magic. Sunny rolled her eyes, but Moon Dancer wasn’t about to let her best friend win without a fight. This entire plan had been insane from the start, but now Sunny had roped Coco and Rara into it! And they’d just gotten in last night!

This is ridiculous! Why are they even going along with this? And why are they so obsessed with this stupid part of it! Gah! My friends have all turned into crazy ponies! What, did the Princess of Love get to them or something?

Moon Dancer ran that particular thought through her head again.

No matter how much she’s changed, Sunny would go manticore if Cadenza cast a spell anywhere near her.

“There’s no use in fighting it, Moon Dancer,” Rara said with a little smile. The smile didn’t quite meet her eyes. “You can’t keep that shield up forever. Especially not with Sunny here ready and willing to dispel it.”

“She wouldn’t dare.” Moon Dancer ground her teeth.

“Uh… sorry.” Coco said with an obnoxiously cute little shrug. “She seems… pretty sure about this. And… well, I did work awfully hard on this outfit for you. It was short notice, so I hope you don’t mind I ended up modifying one of Rara’s evening dresses.”

“Now, you wouldn’t want to waste my sacrifice, would you?” The annoyingly-beautiful songstress batted her eyelashes at Moon Dancer. “After all, Coco here was generous enough to simply pour herself into that dress.”

“I wanted to make sure it was perfect!” Coco interjected with a happy little sigh. “After all, the first date is such a big deal! Especially between ponies with such a past…”

“This isn’t one of your romance novels!” Moon Dancer snapped. “I swear, Sunny, I will get you for this!”

“Probably.” Sunny shrugged, looking way too unconcerned about the fact that she had literally backed her best friend into a corner. “I think I can live with that.”

Moon Dancer could feel Sunny’s counterspell. She could see the stored magic swirling around Sunny’s horn! But with a bookcase to her left and an end table to her right, Moon Dancer didn’t have anywhere left to go. She could try teleporting, but teleporting always gave her migraines.

Still might be worth it… although…

Well… did she actually want out of this? Especially after everything that had happened Friday night at the RCA and Pony Joe’s? Moon Dancer still couldn’t believe Sunny had actually gone and done the idiot thing! Not only had she removed herself from the playing board, but she had also put Moon Dancer smack-dab in the middle of it!

Ugh. I shouldn’t be thinking about this like some game. This is for Twilight! She deserves better!

Her only real consolation—other than the tiny possibility that tonight might actually work—was that Twilight was probably getting the exact same treatment right now at the hooves of Cheerilee and Minuette.

Add that to the thought of what Twilight might end up wearing…

Sunny fired her counterspell the moment Moon Dancer’s focus wavered, distracted by all the possibilities.

Which was completely unfair. Totally unfair. Just like Sunny to pull something like that.

She could have fought it. She didn’t have the same level of raw power as Sunny, but she could definitely match her when it came to strength of will. But… there wasn’t much point, was there? No use in delaying it any longer. They would win in the end, no matter what she did. And in truth… Moon Dancer kinda—okay, she really—wanted this to happen.

The shield collapsed and Moon Dancer huffed at her crazy friends.

If Sunny was determined to make this sacrifice, Moon Dancer would be sure it wasn’t made in vain. It was only right, after all.

There was no other reason. None at all.

Five seconds after the shield dropped, Coco pounced on Moon Dancer. Despite Moon Dancer’s half-hearted protests, in a less than a minute, she wore the designer’s latest creation. Sunny beamed at her, looking—of all things—proud.

Moon Dancer had to admit, from this angle, the outfit didn’t look half-bad. Rara was apparently waiting for the distraction, because when Moon Dancer looked back up, Rara struck with pinpoint precision, assaulting her face with a bit of blush, some eyelash curlers and a hint of eyeshadow. With a few deft strokes of a brush floating in Sunny’s magic, Moon Dancer felt her topknot being pulled away and her somewhat frizzy hair being dampened by yet another spell.

Moon Dancer glared at her best friend.

“Since when do you know cosmetic spells?” she demanded as the brush moved to her tail.

“One of Rara and Coco’s ponies taught me a while back. Got tired of going to a salon whenever there was some big important function the Princess wanted me to attend.”

“Really? Does that mean you finally got drying spells down?” Moon Dancer asked sweetly.

“Shut it, Moony,” Sunny huffed.

Moon Dancer snickered and Sunny joined in a second later. Still, Sunny’s smile at the little joke didn’t exactly ease Moon Dancer’s concern for her friend.

Coco tapped her hoof on her chin and frowned. Then, she snatched another brush, darted behind Moon Dancer and did something with her tail.

“Ow!” she yelped. “Careful back there!”

“Sorry,” came the muffled reply of the pony with a brush in her mouth. “Almost got it…”

Before Moon Dancer could respond with any more protests, Coco pronounced her work complete and Sunny conjured a mirror.

Moon Dancer didn’t really have much of a choice, so she looked into the mirror.

And as cliche as it sounded… she had no idea who was looking back at her.

Her mane had been done up with straight bangs, a bit similar to how she used to wear it, but the back of her hair wrapped around her head in a swirl of red and purple. Moon Dancer wasn’t even sure how it stayed up like that. Her tail was brushed back neatly without a single hair out of place. It looked sleek and stylish.

But the dress was something else entirely.

“You… made this?” Moon Dancer whispered as she turned to admire it from a few different angles. “Just… like that? Rara and I are totally different sizes!”

“Oh, it was only an hour or two of work.” Coco blushed, waving off Moon Dancer’s awe. “Really, nothing special.”

Moon Dancer ran a hoof along her chest. The front of the dress was a series of overlapping drapes of purple fabric, several shades darker than the stripe in her own mane. There was a belt of rose-colored threads cinched around her middle that did wonderful things in drawing attention to her figure. A light purple train covered her flanks, while leaving room for her tail to be free. Thankfully, Coco had remembered Moon Dancer hated having her tail all bunched up.

But the thing that surprised her the most was the tiny brooch that bound the whole dress together on the left shoulder. It was an exact duplicate of Moon Dancer’s own cutie mark, made of delicate silver filigree and amethysts.

The whole thing was gorgeous. Moon Dancer had never felt so beautiful in all her life.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

“Well?” Sunny smirked. “What do you think?”

“Will this be enough to convince you to get rid of that awful topknot?” Coco said, her voice hopeful.

“No,” Moon Dancer grumped, but she had to fight to keep the smile from her face.

Coco saw right through it and beamed at her.

Moon Dancer’s eyes were drawn back to the mirror. They’d even smoothed out her eyebrows and brushed out her coat without her even noticing it.

This was crazy.

But what was more crazy… she liked it.

“Um… do I get to keep it?” Moon Dancer found herself asking, hating herself for her weakness.

“Of course you do, silly,” Rara laughed as she lounged on a pillow, grinning from beneath that wave of indigo and teal hair. “We wouldn’t have it any other way. Anything to get one of our best friends the mare of her dreams.”

Moon Dancer glared at her, but she couldn’t seem to muster up the strength to put any heat into it.

Finally, Sunny floated Moon Dancer’s glasses to her.

They were still her glasses. The lenses had been cleaned and the frames polished. Even the muzzle padding was still there. In fact, it had been replaced with softer padding! But they hadn’t tried to swap the frames with something more ‘stylish.’

“No changes?” Moon Dancer asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sunny shook her head. “She likes you for you, Moony. Always has. Always will. We can make you all stylish and fancy, but we all know neither of you really care about the package. You care what’s in here.”

Sunny tapped the side of her head with a knowing smile.

“And that’s why this’ll go perfectly,” Sunny said with far too much confidence. The sheer amount of forced cheer made Moon Dancer grit her teeth. “You two will have a great time.”

Moon Dancer slipped on her glasses and peered at Sunny, trying to dig past the shields her friend had put up.

“Sunny…”

“Don’t you dare,” Sunny said, her smile still locked securely onto her face. “This is happening, Moony. No point in trying to get out of it. I’ve already set up the reservations for two and what’s more… there may be a surprise for you after dinner.”

“Surprise,” Moon Dancer repeated flatly. “For after dinner.”

“Yeah!” Sunny grinned. “And I just know you’ll love it.”

“I don’t like surprises,” Moon Dancer said.

“Too bad.” Sunny’s grin never faltered. “I’ve done everything in my power to make sure tonight goes great. And it’s going to go great.”

Coco clapped her hooves together. “This is going to be so romantic! I wish I could be there to watch!”

“Oh no, you don’t,” Rara giggled. “You aren’t spying on them, so don’t get any ideas, Coco.”

“Who said anything about spying? I didn’t say anything about spying!” Coco pouted and tried her best to look innocent. She was pretty good at it, but not nearly good enough.

“You’re going to spy on us aren’t you?” Moon Dancer pointed the question right at Sunny.

Sunny was the picture of innocence. “I never said that.”

“You never said you weren’t, either.”

Sunny tapped her chin with her hoof. “You know what… you’re right! I never did.”

Moon Dancer glowered. She pulled out her very best glower. And just like all the other times… it had no effect.

I wonder if the Princess would save me. Probably not.

Moon Dancer took a long breath and looked into Sunset’s smiling face. Except it wasn’t all smiles. There was a little twitch in the jaw, a barely-perceptible swallow and maybe a flicker of her right ear. For just an instant, Moon Dancer caught sight of the mare behind the mask.

Some days, I really wish I could just beat those demons out of her… If it were only that simple. Ugh, Sunset Shimmer: martyr in training.

The cracks in the mask reminded Moon Dancer of the story of how Sunny first met Cheerilee. She’d heard the story at least a dozen times. Cheerilee liked to bring it out to embarrass Sunny whenever she got the chance—or had a few too many hard ciders.

Cheerilee had reached a point in her career where she’d doubted if she was worth anything as a teacher. She’d doubted if she really measured up to anypony around her. Well, it was more than just doubt. She’d all but convinced herself she was worthless! And nothing anypony would say would convince her otherwise.

Moon Dancer had times like that. She was pretty sure most ponies did. But Cheerilee’s… Cheerilee’s doubts had gone pretty deep.

Sunny had all but forced then-Professor Clear to summarize just how bad Sunny had been and just how amazing Cheerilee was. Somehow, she’d even orchestrated getting a note from the Princess delivered by Philomena. And that was back when Sunny and the phoenix barely got along!

It had taken years for Moon Dancer to get the entire story on exactly why Sunny had gone above and beyond for Cheerilee. In fact, Moon Dancer had to drag Sunny out onto a camping trip to the Whitetail Woods before Sunny would come clean.

Moon Dancer could still remember the distracted pain in Sunset’s eyes as she’d told the story.

“I saw the same demons in her eyes, Moony. The same ones that my… ugh, my Mother and Father put in me. Cheery deserved better.”

These were familiar demons. Caused by a dozen different things.

Feelings of inadequacy. Fear. Need for validation and acceptance.

Despite her best efforts, Moon Dancer knew them, too. After all, there was a reason she’d accepted this obnoxious amber unicorn as her tutor seven years ago.

That night in Whitetail Woods, Sunny had looked up in the sky and smiled. She’d said the day Celestia chose her to be her personal student was the day the demons finally left.

Moon Dancer stared at Sunny and wondered when they’d come back.

Assuming they had ever left in the first place.

Somehow, I doubt it.

“Moony?” Coco said, waving her a hoof in front of her face.

“Gah!” Moon Dancer jumped back and almost tripped over her own dress.

Sunny didn’t respond at all. She just stared at her hooves and sucked in a few deep breaths.

“You okay?” Coco asked. “You kinda spaced out there for a little bit.”

“I’m fine,” Moon Dancer said quickly. She glanced at Sunny again, but Sunny still wasn’t looking.

Coco looked a bit confused, but Rara—of course—recognized something. She saw something in the way Moon Dancer had looked at Sunny. Moon Dancer wasn’t really surprised.

“Hey,” Rara said with a gentle smile. “Why don’t you two go make sure the reservation tickets are ready? I want to put the finishing touches on her makeup.”

Sunny didn’t protest. She nodded and departed without a word or a glance back. Coco blinked a few times, but when Rara gestured toward Moon Dancer’s living room, she took the hint. Coco bit her lip, hesitated and finally followed Sunny, closing the door behind her.

Moon Dancer immediately flopped onto her bed—though she was careful not to mess up her dress or mane—while Rara moved a pile of books off one of the bedside chairs.

“She’s finally doing something about it.”

Moon Dancer nodded.

“I’m still having trouble believing she’s doing this,” Rara said as she stared at the door. Moon Dancer stared too. “Well, maybe I can believe it a little.”

“I can believe it all too well,” she muttered.

Rara turned and cocked her head. “What do you mean, Moon Dancer?”

“Don’t play games.” Moon Dancer sighed. “I don’t know how many times we need to tell that pony that she isn’t the same pony she used to be.”

“I honestly think she can’t hear us when we say it,” Rara said as she sat with perfect poise, the posture of somepony used to the stage. “And if she can’t hear us… well, there’s not a lot we can do.”

“Yeah… but where does that leave me?”

Now, Rara gave Moon Dancer her full attention. Those aqua eyes pierced her like spotlights.

“You’re afraid this is doomed from the start.” It wasn’t a question.

“Pretty much,” Moon Dancer said. She pulled a length of string from her nightstand and began to weave it in complex patterns in front of her, not meeting Rara’s eyes.

“Do you want to call it off?”

Same old direct Rara. Never change.

“That’s the worst part…” Moon Dancer yanked on a bit of string a little too hard. It snapped, but a mending spell fixed that. “I don’t. I really do like Twilight. I’ve been holding a torch for her without really knowing it for years. Back at that dinner, everything just rushed back as if nothing had changed. I remembered it all. All the reasons I had this stupid little crush. This stupid, stupid crush.”

“Why is it so stupid?” Rara asked in a warm and inviting voice.

Moon Dancer didn’t know how, but the pony that should have been a demanding diva had become the big sister to their whole little group. No matter what, Rara was easy to talk to. Moon Dancer loved her a little for that. Not in that way, but still. Like family. And without the baggage that came from her own sister.

“Moon Dancer?” Rara prompted.

“Because if I didn’t have this stupid crush, it would be Sunny going out with Twilight instead of me.”

“Moony…” Rara shook her head. “We both know that’s just not true. Sunny—well, Sunny…”

Rara trailed off and Moon Dancer looked up at her.

“Sunny what?” she prompted.

“Raven told us a little about things last night,” Rara replied. “It’s… well, it’s why Coco’s putting it on a little bit thick.”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed,” Moon Dancer gave her a lopsided grin.

“Oh, sush, she’s a romantic. We love that about her.”

“If you say so,” Moon Dancer smirked and wove a few hearts into her pattern, then sent the string spinning around Rara’s head for a bit.

Rara rolled her eyes, then grew serious again. “When Sunny talked to us this morning…” She shook her head. “She’s not ready. She has to learn to forgive herself before she’s ready to let someone that close.”

“I’m starting to doubt she’ll ever learn.” Moon Dancer sighed and pulled back the string, changing the pattern into a towering thunderhead.

“That’s what we’re here for,” Rara said with a smile. “She’s got a thick skull. Almost as thick as yours.”

Moon Dancer stuck out her tongue at her.

“One day, Sunny will figure it out,” Rara insisted. “No matter what, even if we accept her, she needs to accept herself. Even Princess Celestia can’t get her to do that.”

“But where does that leave me?” Moon Dancer demanded again. And despite what others might say, her voice didn’t crack at all.

Rara watched her quietly for a moment, as if waiting for Moon Dancer to do something.

But the words just spun in Moon Dancer’s head. Finally, she lifted her glasses from her muzzle and rubbed her eyes. She hated it when she got stuff in her eyes. Bad timing, too. Some ponies might think she was crying or something silly like that. Which would be stupid. Plus, it would smudge her makeup.

Rara tapped her hoof on her chin. “Well… the way I see it, you’ve got two options.”

“And what might those be, Miss Drama Queen?” Moon Dancer said as she deftly wove a few dancing ponies into the string pattern.

Rara shrugged. “You cancel the whole thing. Tell Sunny you’re not doing it.”

Moon Dancer’s heart practically seized in her chest. “But… but Twilight…”

“Twilight won’t take it well. She does have a thing for you, Moony. We’ve all seen it. Maybe it’s not as much as the thing she has for Sunny, but there’s something there.”

“How can you be sure?”

Rara smiled. “You’ve never heard her talk about you? Or seen the way she looks at you? From the way she tells it, you were her first friend. And that means a lot to a pony like Twilight.”

“How do you know?” Another part of the string broke, but another mending spell fixed it.

“I just told you. Because I can see it in her when she looks at you. We’ve talked about it occasionally—you know…” Rara hesitated. “Without you three around.”

Moon Dancer’s eyes went wide. “Oh, I don’t believe this!

“What?” Rara blinked in surprise.

“You… you were…” Moon Dancer sputtered a little and the string almost dropped out of her magic as she jerked upright on her bed. “You were ready for this!”

“I… have…” Rara drew herself up… and refused to meet Moon Dancer’s stare. “I have no idea what… what you’re talking about!”

“Rara, I love you, but you are a horrible liar. You always have been and always will be. You might be able to pull off a lie of omission—occasionally—but you couldn’t do a bald-faced lie if your life depended on it.”

“Fine!” Rara folded her hooves and huffed. “Yes. I was. When you’ve been on stage as long as I have, Moony, you can tell when somepony’s putting on an act. I saw it on day one in that first fight. You’ve been trying to hide it until today. And I like taking care of my friends. So… yes, I did a little digging. But what I told you is still the truth.”

Moon Dancer hung her head. It took a few seconds to get up the courage to speak again.

“You said there was another option,” she muttered.

“Yes,” Rara said softly. “You go out and give that girl the night of her life.”

“But… if you know how Twilight feels—not to mention how I feel—you have to know how Sunny feels! This feels like betraying them both!”

Rara got up off of her chair, walked over and settled herself onto the bed so she could look Moon Dancer in the eye.

“Moon Dancer, I need you to listen to me.” Rara’s teal eyes bored into her. “Sunny won’t be able to do anything until she’s accepted that she isn’t being manipulated into this.”

“And if she’s manipulating us?” Moon Dancer asked, staring at the floor.

“Then confront her. We both know she’ll at least listen to you, Moon Dancer. Even if you ask her to leave this whole thing alone... I think she’d do it.”

Moon Dancer considered it. It would probably make things easier. But Sunny was her best friend. She loved that idiot mare like a sister. “She should be doing this. Not me.”

“Even ignoring how you feel about Twilight? And how Twilight feels about you?”

“Yes!” Moon Dancer cried defiantly as the string snapped again. She tossed the broken threads onto the bed and furiously worked the rest of it into a chaotic pattern of shifting triangles and trapezoids.

“Okay. Ignoring that…” Rara sighed. “She won’t be able to do this until she’s sure she won’t hurt Twilight.”

“But… but… the whole point of dating and… stuff like it is that sometimes that stuff happens!”

“I’m glad you know that,” Rara said and Moon Dancer knew she was telling the truth. “But Sunny still feels horrible for what happened to Twilight because of her. She’s trying to fix it. And she won’t risk the progress she’s made. You already know all of this.”

“So, I’m a placeholder,” Moon Dancer groaned as the string broke yet again. She chucked it onto the floor. “Wonderful. I’m just a placeholder until Sunny gets her hooves back under her.”

Rara forced Moon Dancer to look her in the eye again. “You are not a placeholder. Right now, all that’s happening is that you’re going on one date. For all you know, you may find that neither of you want this sort of relationship with each other. Maybe you barely make it to the salad before you both have a good laugh and walk away. Dates are ways to get to know ponies in different ways. They’re tests! Trial runs…” Rara paused and smiled. “Experiments. You’re testing hypotheses until you can come up with a theory. In this case, a theory of compatibility.”

“Stop that,” Moon Dancer snapped. “You’re no good at science.”

“Am I wrong?” Rara cocked an eyebrow.

“No,” Moon Dancer pouted. “Doesn’t mean I’m wrong either!”

“Keep telling yourself that, Moony.”

“I will!”

Rara matched Moon Dancer’s stare without even breaking a sweat. Moon Dancer had to look away first. She sighed and buried her face in her hooves.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“What if…”

“No!” Rara interrupted with a hoof on Moon Dancer’s shoulder. “No what ifs. Moon Dancer, you think too much. You’re just like Sunny and Twilight. You need to finally start acting. Find out if it works.”

“And if Sunny decides the feelings she has for Twilight are real?”

“Then it’s up to Twilight,” Rara said simply. “She’ll need to choose.”

“Sounds like a bum deal to me. For everypony involved.”

“Maybe.” Rara shrugged. “Maybe not. But either way… it’s still Twilight’s choice. That’s the thing I think you might both be forgetting. Twilight has a decision in all of this. And Sunset told her about it. She suggested this date—and only this date—and Twilight agreed. If Twilight were being forced into this, you know that Cheerilee and Minuette would be kicking down your door right now to have words with Sunny. So, I guess the real question is… do you trust Twilight to help decide what happens next?”

“I trust Twilight to overthink this thing worse than me.”

“No arguments here,” Rara replied with a humorless chuckle. “But what’s the truth, Moon Dancer? Do you want to do this tonight or not? Don’t think about Sunny. Just think about Twilight. And you. Yes or no?”

Moon Dancer forced herself to push the worry over her best friend out of her mind. It was a lot harder than she expected. But, she got the job done.

She remembered first seeing Twilight a year or two after magic kindergarten, sitting under an oak tree, reading an academy-level book about advanced telekinetics.

Moon Dancer had been so curious, she’d trotted right up and asked why Twilight was reading a book that was supposed to be ten years too advanced for her. Eventually, after breaking through Twilight’s initial suspicion—by proving that yes, she could keep up with her—she’d finally got Twilight to smile. It had been such a cute smile.

Twilight still had that smile. It had grown. It had matured. But it was still the same smile.

“Yes.”

“Then tonight, make it about her.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“You do realize I’m crazy for doing this right?”

“Well, you said all the ponies in this room were crazy.” Rara shrugged. “You were in the room at the time.”

Moon Dancer opened her mouth to retort.

Then closed it.

“I hate it when you’re right.”

Author's Notes:

It looks like they're actually going ahead with this... Jeepers.


If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!

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