Considering that they might need to chat for a while, Shimmering Light felt that standing here was not a good place to start a discussion, and it was also quite impolite to invite a princess to stand while talking.
Thus, Shimmering Light suggested moving a few steps to find a place where they could sit down.
Then, under the slightly surprised gaze of Nightmare Moon, Shimmering Light pulled a painting on the wall, and the castle wall immediately flipped over, revealing a secret passage that provided a shortcut to the Library.
"This seems to be a design you requested back in the day."
Seeing that Nightmare Moon's face held more of a hazy sense of reminiscence than surprise, Shimmering Light also recalled the significance of this Old Castle to Nightmare Moon, or more accurately, to Princess Luna.
"...Yes. But it has been too long, so long that I can no longer remember exactly how many mechanisms there are here, nor how to trigger them... But I remember there seems to be a pipe organ in the deepest part."
Because the pipe organ in the underground area was the control center for most of the mechanisms in the castle, and it could emit terrifying sounds while using the mechanisms to prank others, weakening the victims' sanity, it was an exquisite prank device, which is why Nightmare Moon remembered it so vividly.
Seemingly recalling the happy memories she had left here in the past, Nightmare Moon's expression became much softer.
Shimmering Light brought Nightmare Moon to the Library, and after pulling the mechanism located at the foot of the chair, the door to the secret room opened in response.
Just like that pipe organ, Nightmare Moon also had an impression of this place; after all, this small room was specifically designed by her for Celestia, and the two sisters used to rest here often in the past.
What surprised Nightmare Moon was that this castle had not been tended to by any pony for a thousand years, and while the outside was dilapidated, this place was exceptionally clean and tidy, with even the cushions and pillows being new.
"I found that the room structure here was well-preserved, and it really is a great place to steal a moment of leisure, so I cleaned it up and added some household items while I was at it."
While explaining the reason why the style here was different from the outside, Shimmering Light took out tea sets and tea leaves from the cabinet.
"Would you like black tea, green tea, or herbal tea?"
Seeing how familiar Shimmering Light was acting, Nightmare Moon's expression twitched.
'Is this your house or mine?'
"I'm more interested in knowing how you knew about this place right now? Black tea is fine, thank you."
Nightmare Moon was not angry that a pony had been using this place without permission; it was a long-abandoned place, so it was good enough just to have a place to set foot. In fact, seeing a warm and clean spot in the castle actually brought Nightmare Moon a little surprise.
"Did you forget I mentioned earlier that I often come to this area, and then accidentally discovered this treasure trove? Please have some tea; the sugar and milk are here."
Nightmare Moon remembered that Shimmering Light had indeed said so, but she hadn't taken it to heart. Now it seemed it was true, and judging by her familiarity with the mechanisms here, which already exceeded her own, this young mare had truly explored almost everything here.
"I found the diaries of you and Princess Celestia here, and saw your descriptions of the mechanisms in this castle. Although quite a few have broken down due to long-term lack of maintenance, there are still many secret doors and passages that can continue to be used."
"Then what do you think of these mechanisms?"
"Exquisite ideas! Without a doubt, your design taste for the castle has a genius-level inspiration."
Although Princess Luna might have done this back then simply because she thought it was fun, the unintentionally achieved result happened to coincide with Shimmering Light's current strategic considerations; this was also a manifestation of genius.
Nightmare Moon looked at the smile on Shimmering Light's face, and she also revealed a hint of a smile; clearly, Flying Light's praise was very well-received by her.
Now, the more she looked at this Unicorn, the more satisfied she was. She really couldn't imagine how her airheaded sister managed to pick up such a likable pony as a student.
But it didn't matter. Celestia was not here, and Equestria was already hers, which of course included her sister's student.
"Let us return to the previous topic."
Shimmering Light cherished the friendly atmosphere where she could drink tea and have a heart-to-heart talk with Nightmare Moon, and she prayed in her heart that the M6 would arrive later.
"Although Nightmare Magic and Memory Magic are two different types of magic, according to my speculation, the two are not unrelated; in fact, they have a very close connection."
Because the nature of the two types of magic was quite special, Shimmering Light had no opportunity to truly practice them, so she could only reverse-engineer the principles based on the effects described in books and literature.
Setting aside the magical aspect, if we view the essence of memory as a systematic application of the brain's memory mechanisms, and view nightmares as a special state of brain activity during the REM sleep cycle, the commonality between the two is that they share core brain regions such as the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex.
From this, we can conclude that they both manipulate the memory regulation system unique to REM sleep, with the difference being that one promotes memory encoding while the other inhibits memory formation.
Simply put, both types of magic can manipulate a pony's brain, so theoretically speaking, if Nightmare Magic is micro-managed, achieving the same effect as Memory Magic is entirely feasible.
It's just that Shimmering Light had never witnessed true Memory Magic or Nightmare Magic, so these were all theoretical conjectures; the specific situation would depend on the explanation from Nightmare Moon, the expert in Dream Magic.
However, as the princess of the dream world, Nightmare Moon had never thought about so much.
Hearing Shimmering Light recount such complex principles, Nightmare Moon was at a loss for words for a moment.
'Is this your Nightmare Magic or my Nightmare Magic?'
It was no wonder Shimmering Light was so rigorous; besides her own interest in various types of magic, the main reason was that Flying Light had suffered because of Nightmare Magic, and this incident had been recorded in her own ledger.
However, regarding using Dream Magic to invade other ponies' memories and alter their perception, even if she were to become Nightmare Moon, she had never thought that Nightmare Magic could actually have such wicked methods.
To develop such a malicious function for Dream Magic—what kind of evil wizard is this!
Thinking of this pony suffering through such a terrible event, Nightmare Moon actually felt a tinge of pity and fondness, and also felt some resentment toward her sister for failing to protect her own student.
However, with Shimmering Light still waiting for her to provide answers, Nightmare Moon could only temporarily suppress her churning emotions and adopt the demeanor that a reliable elder should have.
"Your speculation does have some logic, but as the ruler of dreams, I must tell you that no matter what, Nightmare Magic cannot achieve the effect of deleting memories; this is an insurmountable boundary between magics."
Even if both types of magic can influence cognition and perception, there is still a fundamental difference.
No matter how miraculous Nightmare Magic is, it only influences memories indirectly by using dreams as a medium, and it only causes an impact, rather than direct control.
This is like how the reason dreaming is linked to memory is precisely because it needs to obtain past information and scenarios from the hippocampus as material to form the most basic appearance of a dream.
Therefore, Nightmare Magic only has the authority to extract memories, but it does not have the ability to eliminate them.
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