//------------------------------//
// chapter 2 
// Story: the rising of the star 
// by zizolid1 
//------------------------------//

The sisters were a bit surprised to see only a single city, large one but only one. They walked through the city, and they were greeted by many eyes. “It’s a bit off-putting that they stare so…vividly, is it not sister?” whispered Luna. 

“Well not exactly, in equestria, at least to the ponies, there only two maybe three known alicorns.” Responded Celestia. 

“Three?” Luna was left confused “Unless you intend our other sister there is no other alicorn they could know, and if they did know her then that is big news.” 

“maybe their king is an alicorn, probably an ascended one,but that wouldn't explain the eyes. And to answer your first question, we stick out like a candle in darkness, because we are alicorns”

The two sisters traveled through the city until they the center shard. In one of the foot of the shard there was big piece of crystal that was surrounded by a small crowd with a unicorn with a dark cyan skin and red cape which contrasted with his dark mane.

“I am willing to bet a hundred bits that he is at least somepony important” said Celestia, “well sister looks like you’ve already won.”

The unicorn then turned to look at the sister and instantly dropped what he was doing. “It seems that we have visitors to our empire, royal ones form the look of it. King Sombra at your service.” Greeted Sombra. The sisters were a bit shocked that he was king they were expecting an alicorn. “So what brings you to our fine empire, and might I ask if you had any information on the damage caused to the upper end of shard?” asked Sombra. 

Luna responded “uhh yes it was I who accidently bumped into it, its mark is still visible. I do deeply apologize for the collateral damage.” 
Sombra let out a sigh of relief “I was worried about the who.  The damages can be easily undone in a matter of seconds, speaking of might I ask where it hurt you?” Luna showed her underwing “now I shall show you the power of our heart, our magic, and the crystal heart. Its magical device that powers and defends our city from the cold and frigid snow and defends against all kinds of magic. The crystal does have its own source of power, the crystal ponies, the magic is similar to that of the heat warming spell that defends all of equestria against the wendigoes." explains Sombra. 

Celestia interrupts “so it a kind of specialized or powerful transformer that changes the magic it receives.” Sombra then continues “more or less, it’s a generator more, we know that emotions can serve as power source or fuel, the crystal heart receives these emotions, in this case the love for the empire, and powers the city. Now if I am given a moment ill share with you its power.”

Sombra took Luna near the crystal and stood still and started concentrating, then he spoke in an foreign language and then Sombra used his horn to connect with the crystal and then transferred its energy and directed it towards Luna who in a matter of seconds felt her wing recover fully. Luna felt great and her sister was mesmerized by the crystal’s power. 

Sombra then turned towards the two sisters and asked for something in return that being answer to some questions he had been willing to ask alicorns. “First question. How long do you guys tend to live and what age are you living through now.” 

Celestia responded first “well alicorn age is very long in comparison to that of normal ponies, one alicorn year is roughly  fifty pony years, on top of that most alicorn last upwards fifty to eighty alicorn years, I just reached twenty years and my sister stands tall at eighteen. Despite the fact that those numbers signal just reaching maturity, many alicorns reach full maturity by age four or five. ”

This only left Sombra with more questions. “ok so, what of your parents who were they, how long did they live for?”

Luna then picked up the conversations “our parent's name are ones we can not speak in public about but i can provide with some information on their lives in equestria, by their tradition they had to raise children away from their empire, they choose to raise me and my sister’s lives at equestria in the end they eventually were rejected by their own empire, and choose to raise us in the mountain of Canterlot. They then fought Grogar as they realized his threat not only to their own empire that they worked hard to create. They were incredibly powerful even for alicorn status, but Grogar stood on a higher level and with the help of his bell was able to take a majority of their magic. They spent their final bit of magic instead on sharing it creating an eternal spell that would give way to the ascended alicorn, meaning any pony with enough skill ,power and leadership to rule all three kinds of ponies, would be capable of turning into an alicorn so far none have broken that barrier. Our parents stuck the last breath on the age one hundred and twenty.”

Sombra knew from the look of the sisters that they were very distressed just hearing about her parents so he stopped with his question and instead offered them a place to stay. But before he could offer them a place to rest the sisters started their process of lowering the sun and bring the moon. Sombra was amazed, and then offer them a place to rest as he could easily tell by their sunken eyes and week wings.

Sombra then lead them into his shard and lend them the opposite side of the castle to his quarters. As Celestia went to sleep Luna stayed up to perform her nightly studies on the stars.

Sombra noticed Luna awake “you are not sleeping?” he asked.

Luna turned to him “no, though it is my duty to guard and research the moon and her children.” 
Sombra was left confused “children? research? What for?” asked Sombra. 

“the sun and the moon are two of the most powerful entities to exist, not divine more like sentient power banks, with power only being demonstrated by their form, of which the moon’s cannot be transformed into another, at least that is what we know, which is very little and can be disproven or improved with more that is discover; in other words there is much to learn about them. But the stars on the other hand, we have decent information for them, they, like the sun and moon are power banks. But unlike the sun and moon, their power can be extracted but only by few, and when they are extracted they tend to be temporary as no creature can handle it without either removing it or wasting themselves with it.” 

Sombra was still confused as to why research. Luna felt like she was talking to her sister who rarely understood what Luna did during the night. “In order for one to take the magic of the stars" continued luna "they need to be in certain position. From this many, including I, believe that these stars collectively know all there is to know in the timeline, meaning they know who will absorb their magic so they head into place; studying the correlation between our world’s magical events and their position can be a key to learning of the future. Unfortunately it is a very long process; a pony can start from birth study nonstop till death and barely scratch their secrets only alicorn with their gift of long life can even attempt to reach it only to learn very little of the whole. Now if you don’t mind I prefer I would like to perform my duties alone tonight I am very weary from yesterday’s interactions.”

The day eventually had been risen by Celestia and Luna moved to sleep. During the day Sombra and Celestia discussed nonstop about their respective lives and kingdoms. They eventually agree on forming an alliance of trade and military, before the sister decided to leave.