//------------------------------// // Know // Story: Creation // by Nachtschwalbe //------------------------------// C r e a t i o n by Nightjar Chapter Two "I am sorry, your Majesty, but I'm not able to tell you what kind of serpent that is. It is possible you discovered a whole new species. Though I can say that it has some characteristics similar to the gloom wriggler* and ..." The deadpan look he recieved made him stop. "So tell He Us at least what gender We are dealing with." "Oh, of course, your Majesty. It's a female specimen you found there." So a girl, hmm? I think I have some ideas. "Has He found any medical issues?", Luna asked the veterinary as she turned to the reptile on the examination table and nuzzled its soft back. The snake returned the gesture happily. She couldn't see the risen eyebrow the doctor gave that sight. "No, your Highness, this creature seems healthy. Though its occult fluctuations are very instable but that's normal for newborns. Though I've never seen such high amplitudes, at least not on animals." Comprehensible. She did hatch out of a magic-filled egg. Luna levitated the little snake onto her back, made her farewells and left the veterinarians office. "So, you're a girl, eh?" Luna turned around to look at her charge who just looked at her with interest. "Well, then let's find out your name!" ʅѫʃ "Well, that surely isn't a common name." Luna smiled with her face right in-front of the newly named one. It had taken her about three hours of constant search in the Books of Names and this one seemed rather fitting and it's new bearer was happy, too. "Now, then, Dioptase Void, what shall we do now?" The snake answered by tickling Luna's nose. The alicorn giggled and put Dioptase onto her withers. "You know, I think you'll become pretty huge. I mean even as a newborn you are nearly one and a half yards long." Suddenly she stopped. What if she was venomous? Or maybe she was a legendary basilisk?...Nah. And thus she resumed walking. Why do I feel like I forgot something? She scrunched up her face in deep thought and lost track of where she was going and that led her to a certain double door. As Luna nearly bumped into it she took a step back and looked at it blankly. "Oh!" Then it hit her. "Food! You haven't eaten anything yet!" With her last words she magically pushed the door open and entered the Royal Refectory. The Royal Refectory was not the private dining room of the princesses but the abundant hall reserved for galas and banquetries. But that didn't change anything for the nighttime princess as she sat Dioptase onto the table and pulled on a string to get one of the kitchen orderlies. Soon enough a young unicorn colt enters and bows deeply before her. "How can I be of service, Your Highness?" "Bring He Us—" What? What' does she need to eat? "Bring He Us chicken and fish." The colt's eyes went wide in shock, but the raised brow of his princess caused him to regain his composure and, still bowing, he confirmed the order and retreated backwards. At the door he turned around and left the room. "Hmm, I wonder which will satisfy you more. Sadly you're definitely carnivorous, if your teeth are any indication." Apparently it was fish. ʅѫʃ Crying. Luna's eyes snapped open. Something was crying in her room. It came from behind the footboard of the bed. Dioptase? That was her sleeping place but since when could snakes cry? However... She sat up, crawled toward the end of the bed and leaned over it. There she lay and quivered. At first Luna wanted to reach down to stroke and comfort her but then she saw that something was off. Dioptase wasn't supposed to be opaque. Suddenly the princess remembered what one of the books she had read on the topic had said about the growth of serpents. 'Molting. Skin becomes muddy and eyes glaze over. Body becomes highly receptive to touch, smell and sound.' Blind and strained nerves. She must be utterly scared. With a soft and caring look on her face she hushed the child-snake while gently levitating her up onto the bedding. Still whispering calming words Luna began caressing the scared Dioptase with the silky feathers of her wings. Soon the care showed success as the sobbing ceased and got replaced by a light snore. It's been three weeks and you still surprise me. Since you seem to have real vocal chords I don't doubt that you could learn how to speak. Luna's lips curled in amusement. She curled around Dioptase and drifted back to sleep. ʅѫʃ "Oh, good morning, Luna! I'm glad you could make it." The table was not as big as the one in The Refectory but still impressive; especially since it was way more artistic. It's legs were slim and formed like the hindlegs of ponies, positioned like trying to guard the meals served on the table. Filigree figures were carved out of them, letting them look even more fragile though they were as sturdy as the apple tree which's heart they once built. The surface was smooth and polished with beveled edges and decorated with a wave-like cut. In the middle was a shallow indentation which served as small fountain. Often it was filled with water. Sometimes it was recommended to not bring anything burning close to it. "Good morning, sister." Luna sat down right opposite of Celestia and tried to hide a yawn with her front hoof. "Rough night?", Celestia asked with understanding pity in her voice. She often tried to take care of the most unpleasant works to spare her sister the pressure but sometimes she just wasn't able to accomplish her self-set goal. "Not more than any other. After two weeks barely even talking to you I just decided to stay up a little longer and have ... breakfast with you." She shot her sister a tired smile. Then her countenance changed to one of sudden recalling. "Oh! And I wanted to finally introduce a new member of our, heh, 'household'." With these words she reached her magic into her mane and produced the pearl colored Dioptase Void. Just this morning she had shed her old skin and glistened in the light of the rising sun. Luna sat the serpent onto the table and watched happily as Dioptase slithered around on it and sniffed and felt with her tongue everything she could find. She didn't look at her sister and thus missed the shocked expression on her face. The solar princess used this opportunity to regain her composure and voiced a question with a little too sweet of a layer in her voice. "What is this, Luna?" The inquired royal gave her sister a deadpan look. "She is a snake, dear sister. Her name is Dioptase Void." Celestia gave a slight eyeroll before giving her counter with a serious aspect and a soothing but firm voice. "I can see that. And that is the problem: Why is it on the table?" Luna's face began to sport a frown as she caught on where this was going and levitated Dioptase back to herself, setting her next to her dish. "It's nice that you have a pet but please put it down. I don't want to know where it has been ... hmm ... slithering before." Celestia sighed and changed her expression to the same kenning sympathy as at the beginning of the conversation and was about to continue. But before she could she was interrupted by Luna who was just about to feed the little snake. "Please stop referring to her like she's merely an animal." Luna just glanced at her sister and otherwise remained fully concentrated at her charge. "She is sentient and sapient and just had her first molding. That was rather stressful for her so please don't add insult to her fardel." Silence reigned for a short while until Celestia let out a sigh and raised a hoof to message her temples. "Well then, where did you find that thi— Dioptase ... Void?" She lowered her hoof relatively quick and following her decision to humor Luna, she also gave a weak smile. It wasn't completely insincere, though; she really wanted to know where that unusual creature came from. Because it might be poisonous and though thanks to being an alicorn the venom probably wouldn't kill Luna but could nevertheless cause serious and – worst case – lasting damage and illness. And she couldn't let that happen to her sister. Luna remembered that night. It'd begun ... disgruntling. But it had ended with Dioptase Void. "Well, you see, a few weeks ago I decided to take a wing hike to the Amble Range. On my way back I spotted a cave on the side of the Canterlot Mountain and became curious..." The storytelling went smoothly and she conveniently left out the more exciting details. She didn't want to give her sister's looking-down-at-her-behavior any more fuel, as good-natured it might be. ʅѫʃ "Do you like the stars? Huh? Dah ya like tha stars?" She had to giggle while nuzzling Dioptase Void. They stood on the balcony under the nightsky. Well Luna did. Dioptase lazily hung around the princess' neck, smiling up at her. "Stas!" The little serpent exclaimed. Luna's eyes widened in surprise and her mouth, just having opened for a silent Oh!, morphed into a wide grin. "Odsooks! You talk! I knew it! And that was your first word!" She took her Charge in her telekinesis and threw her into the air. After catching the giggling snake again and holding her right in-front of her face that same one changed into a serious mien. "A celebration is required." Her smile returned and she strode towards the kitchen. ʅѫʃ "Mama?" "Yes, duckie?" Luna was just about to read the first when Dioptase looked up at her with a proud grin. Though that fell when she heard her nickname. "Don't call me that! It's embarrassing." "Very well, cutie. So, you wanted to tell me something?" She hid her smile as she saw Dioptase Void's pout. The six-year-old began to grin again as she remembered the the reason she came to her adoptive mother. "Look what I can do!" With that she squinted her eyes at a book on a shelf at the far side of Luna's bureau. "What is it? Do you try to do the Stare?" Luna giggled. Dioptase's face only scrunched up more. "'Tase? What are—?" She was interrupted as the book suddenly shot of the board and right onto the escritoire. Luna stood open mouthed and her eyes shot back and forth between her surrogate daughter and the book and she caught a glimpse of a slight glow in the child-serpent's feathers. They are beautiful. I remember the day she got them. It was weird. The she caught the hopeful and likewise beautiful eyes and regained her composure. Smiling and with pride in her voice she praised her daughter. After nuzzling a thought came to her mind. "Well, I think you need to be taught in magic. That shall surely became very interesting." ʅѫʃ This meeting was going to become a total disaster. Across from Luna sat the ambassador and his entourage and their indifferent visages played with her temper. And she put every ounce of her feelings into her frown. Celestia sat on the end of the table and her smile was friendly but without friendship. "And We have to say – again – that Your methods of forced labor are nothing else than slavery." Luna's temper rose with each word and she instinctively leaned forward, her wings slightly flared. "And that goes against everything Equestria stands for." If the ambassador was intimidated, he didn't show it except maybe for a slight furrowing of his brow. "The workers of our mines are not slaves but criminals who are sentenced to pay back what they planned to take away. And that, dear Princesses is called redemption and hardly anything bad ... or, as you said before, evil." He lightly put his hoof onto the table and smoothed out an imaginary fold in the cloth. "May that be as it is, our law is hardly of any concern for you." At the scoff from Luna and the dissenting spark in Celestia's eyes he continued. "You said it yourself: It is against everything Equestria stands for. Ignoring that morals and principles can be interpreted differently it exactly says what I claimed before. The affairs of the Crystal Empire are not for you to mind." "Though that is how foreign policy works. You might denote it as redeeming activities of welfare but Our little ponies think of it as slavery and that makes them very ... ahm ... wary. Suspicious even. And of what You just said You want us to commit hypocrisy and that would stir an undesirable level of disaffection in Our subjects. And that is ignoring that Your request is quite offending." Celestia's words were calm and even and laced with false amusement. "Well, it is not our nor his Majesties business if you can't control your subjects. You are the rulers of your country. Not us." The corner of his mouth twitched. The look of the Royal Pony Sister became extraordinarily saturnine. This meeting was going to become a total disaster. ʅѫʃ The guard lightly knocked and entered. After a minute he came back out and held the door open as Dioptase Void slithered past him. Once in the foyer she waited and soon Celestia strode towards her. "Dioptase! How do you do?" She dipped her head for greeting and her goddaughter did the same. She then signaled with her head for Dioptase to follow so they could talk on the way. "Aunt Celestia, I bid you a good day. And I'm pretty fine, thank you. Though Starswirl and I still have an unofficial competition running." "Ah, yes. He told me about it. Say, what makes you think that's it's possible or even recommendable to use curved instead of straight, more direct vectors in the polygons – and by extension hexahedrons? Wouldn't that destroy them and thus make the cast magic uncontrollable?" She ended with an apologizing smile. "They would destroy them, yes, but that doesn't make it slip one's mastery. I'm still not sure how to explain it but I know it works and it's a lot easier, too. You'll see what I found once I finished my experiments." They had reached Celestias study and the Princess nodded to a valet who went to a liquor cabinet while she brought her guest to the recently lit fireplace. As they settled down onto the huge and fluffy pillows the valet from before brought some refreshments and snacks and then retreated into a corner of the room. "So, what brings the Baroness of Many Hill Haven to me?" She said the title with a glint in her eyes. Dioptase was not amused. And she knew that her aunt knew. It was a joke, really. She was officially adopted by Princess Luna and thus she needed a title. Thing was she didn't want one and so it was decided by the princesses that she would get the second lowest one and the claim on a small fishing village on the lee shore of a long island at the northeastern coast of Equestria. I mean, at first the counts and dukes didn't want to see mas as equal to a pony and then they do a whole one-eighty turn and declare me a noble. Ridiculous! She gathered her thoughts again and curled up before blurting out. "Something's wrong with Mama." She looked away when she recalled the last month. Then she heard a sigh from Celestia. "So it's not only me." When their eyes met she continued. " I haven't had the chance to really talk with her in weeks. That in itself is, I sadly admit, not uncommon but there were times we met and she was very offhoofed every time. Everyday I think about what to do but ..." "Auntie, I might be only fifteen but could you, I don't know ... just ... you know ... talk to her?" Celestia's frown deepened. "I just told you that she is very closed up towards me." "I know." Dioptase replied hastily. "Though I think it's because you didn't pry. Please Auntie! I tried to talk to her for the whole last month and all it got me were either hollow word or fights. I really don't know what else there is I could do." Pleading Eyes met sad ones until latter regarded the fire. The solar princess sighed. "She is my sister." She looked back at her adoptive niece again and smiled weakly. "It is part of my duty to pester her." They both giggled lightly. ʅѫʃ As Celestia entered, Luna's voice echoed across the throneroom. "Not another step!"