Life of Lyra
Chapter 36
Previous Chapter Next Chapter[[ A Joyce Perspective ]]
"Your daughter has applied for three holiday visas to visit Thestralia."
Princess Celestia's words didn't surprise me. I'd heard Lyra murmur about visiting Dream and Robin. "Is there a problem with that?" I lifted the delicate porcelain cup to my lips and sipped. She'd done it, of course—Princess Celestia had made me into a tea snob. The leaf we were drinking now was a rich black tea from the griffons. It cost a small fortune to acquire, but that didn't stop the royal pantry from stocking it.
"It's less about allowing two of my finest guardponies to visit a friendly nation and more about them taking Scootaloo. I don't believe you are ignorant of the situation there."
I didn't answer immediately—I was enjoying the tea too much. It was fortunate that Princess Celestia had the same habits as I'd developed when it came to tea, and even more patience. "She could become a bat pony." I'd discussed it with Lyra myself. "But, only if she finds her special talent while there."
"It's a gamble."
"You know the background of her?" I'd need something more substantial than the tea if I was going to be giving Celestia advice. I reached for a piece of tea cake that had chantilly cream. A good portion of said cream wet my palate in prepration.
"Not entirely. Is there pertinent information I may not know?"
Doctor Mango mode it is. "She may not ever fly. There's a set of tendons in a pegasus' wings that regulates feather angle for the secondary feathers. She doesn't have it. As a foal grows up, there's a small chance the tendons will grow in anyway."
"Chances?"
"Less than thirty percent of it correcting itself. There's a remedy that works in another ten percent of cases. This—if she does find her special talent—might be a way for her to avoid that fate."
It was my turn to exercise patience. Princess Celestia levitated her teacup up and took a long sip—something I knew meant she was thinking on something and wanted some time to work it over in her head. Only once she'd had a good few minutes to savor the tea (while I ate my piece of cake) did she seem ready to make her stance known.
"Your daughter knows my feelings on fate and destiny. Hearing Scootaloo's plight in more detail reminds me why I gave Lyra an A-plus for that topic. She's allowing fate itself to roll the dice for the filly just once more. I can appreciate that everything will be left to fate to decide. Very well, I won't stand in the way of their visas." She barely seemed to take a breath throughout her little proclamation. "How is the situation with my sister going?"
"She's going to attack you. There's going to be a confluence soon—she says not more than six months away—that will allow her to return. She wants revenge." It wasn't failure. Her getting revenge on Celestia had been the one thing Nightmare Moon had been rigid on. I'd gotten her to mellow and relax on everything else.
"The Summer Sun Celebration is in five months. That will also coincide with the thousandth year of her exile."
I nodded to that. Nightmare Moon had been planning her revenge for a long time, though I'd managed to talk her down from destroying the world with nightmare monsters to just eternal night and punishing her sister. "You have preparations in place?"
"If you're asking will I let her have her revenge on myself? The answer is yes. She deserves that. As for Equestria—it needs its ruler, but there is somepony I think can help here. Much as I dislike sending ponies into dangerous situations, I have long learned that I can no more stop a pony from doing what they think is right than I can change the seasons on my own.
"You'll forgive me, Joyce, for not revealing everything?"
"I will, of course. I like to think I'm your friend. Friends, or so I hear, are tolerant of their friends' need for privacy." It was reassuring, actually. Knowing that she had a plan and expected to survive her sister's wrath calmed some of my worries.
"You are the rarest friend a monarch could hope to have, Joyce Mango."
We sat together in the relative quiet of her garden and sipped tea and ate cake together. It gave me time to reflect more on what I was doing with my life as a whole.
I'd come to Equestria seeking to learn skills that I could take back to Thestralia and help people there, but what I was doing here did that and more. The medical trade I'd help initiate was enough to sate my desire to help my former nation, but what I was doing to help the ponies here was heartening in a way that doing hands-on (or wings-on these days) work in the field wouldn't be able to approach.
My expertise and knowledge was doing good. It helped Equestrian and Thestralian ponies thrive and be their best. "Thank you," I said.
Celestia just lifted her visible eyebrow a little.
"For letting me do what I wanted. I don't think I fully explained it to you, but when I came here I wanted to learn and use that learning to help Thestralia. I thought it would mean I'd have to go back and leave Lyra behind.
"But this—Working for you gives me a chance to do that and more. I'm helping Thestralia by helping you work with them, but I'm also helping Equestria.
"It just didn't click before that I was so busy trying to build my skills to help, that I didn't notice I was doing so already."
Her smile didn't waver for a moment, but it wasn't the Princess Celestia Mask I was seeing, this was Celestia who I had tea with in her garden. "I can't say I planned this. Some might attribute foresight among my talents, but the truth is I make opportunities and let destiny see to the rest."
I couldn't stop from chuckling at her confidence. Back on Earth, that kind of optimism would be crushed. Here in Equestria, with destiny being a tangible force, it was proper leadership. "That's worked well so far?"
"A thousand years of peace. You could even say destiny rules at my side—though I would prefer it if my sister were able to do that again."
Could she? If I were back on Earth and Nightmare Moon was my patient, I don't think I'd be recommending her for leadership of a nation. Well, Joyce, now you have to put on your doctor pants. "I don't think she's ready for that."
"I believe that, but I will give her the chance to rise above this, particularly if she has somepony to advise her." The tone was as obvious as that expressive eyebrow Celestia possessed.
"Destiny," I said.
It was time for another cup of tea. I carefully emptied out the last of my cup and over a rose bush just behind me, then picked the teapot up with my wing. "It's taken me some thinking, given we didn't have such a tangible force where I came from, but I can't deny that a thousand years of experience and observation—as well as my own interactions with it—actually show destiny to be affecting things that it is real."
"Which is why I will allow Lyra and Sweetie to take Scootaloo for a little holiday. Sometimes destiny must be accounted for, sometimes it must be left to make its mark, but on rare occasions it needs a little push. If it is Scootaloo's destiny to be a bat pony, she will be one."
"How soon?" I asked.
Nightmare Moon's visits were more frequent now—several times a week. This was the second.
Sitting in a pile of cushions, Nightmare Moon sipped on her drink. If it was tea, I had no idea what blend it was. "You ask me that every time. I assume you've already told my sister I'm making plans?"
I rolled my eyes at her—she seemed to get the point.
"I know you told me you would, but I wondered still." She sounded calm and collected, far from the raging demon I'd first met. There was a lot of anger under the surface still, but I was slowly getting to the bottom of that and revealing it for us both to talk about. "The Summer Sun Celebration. It's as good a time as any, and a thousand years sounds like a good, round number. I'm not going to go easy on her."
"Yeah. You told me before, and I told her. She looks forward to seeing you again." Waiting for her anger, I tried to not let it show—nor did I let it show that I was surprised she didn't get angry.
She was so much like her sister at times. We sat in a companionable silence in the dream realm together. This was different to Dreaming primarily because it was controlled and static. If I wanted to change something, I'd have to focus to do so. If this were the Dreamtime, I'd have to focus to stop things changing.
"What is happening with your family?" Nightmare Moon asked.
"My daughter and her wife are going for a holiday, my husband is laying beside me on our bed. I have a new foal on the way." She was a lot calmer than she used to be, so I considered it okay to mention them now. "Did you have a foal? Before your exile, I mean."
She looked surprised, perhaps a little shocked. "No."
"Maybe you'll find the right stallion when you return." As soon as I said it, her head snapped around to look at me in complete shock. "What? You don't believe in love? Tall, dark, and brooding is a big turn-on for some stallions. Plus, with those wings, I know several pegasi who'd do just about anything to take you out on a date."
She narrowed her eyes for a second, looking at me through her pupils that were slit down like a cat's in bright light. Then she laughed. "You are a delight, Joyce. You don't lie at all, and I swear that you have a more pony-like view of the world than any born pony. You'll have to introduce your family when I'm free."
"We'll see. I'll have my foal by then." The idea that I was going to have another baby came with a mix of worries and delights. Mostly the delights. The only things that worried me about bringing another life into the world (any world) was having someone to help me this time—and I had Tufts. Just thinking about him made me grin like a fool.
"What's she like?"
"Who?"
"My sister?"
It was my turn to be stunned. Normally, if the topic turned to Celestia, Nightmare Moon would devolve into rage instantly. This Nightmare Moon looked somber. "I talked to her about destiny today. Her governance almost seems Machiavellian in her control and poise, but she is almost the opposite. She tries to be hooves-off so far as individuals are concerned. She lets destiny rule with her.
"Do you want to know what she said?" I asked. At Nightmare Moon's nod I continued, "Celestia said it felt like she was co-ruling with destiny, but that she'd rather co-rule with yo—" I stopped because she'd looked away. "Do you want me to leave?"
"Please don't go." Nightmare Moon looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "C-Can you sit with me a bit longer?"
I stood up and took a few steps until I was standing beside Nightmare Moon. There, I curled up and folded my legs down and stretched one wing over her back. "Of course I can. We have all night."