"So wait…"
I was getting tired of this. Spike was going to ask the same question again I'm sure. Gaia and I were both trying to ignore him. The ship's library was lovely. Like the rest of the airship's interior it was full of carved wood, with a great deal of variety, mixing dark and light, often in the same piece. This included the walls themselves. The carvings were mostly natural scenes, but one room seemed to have a large city like Manehatten on its walls. Gaia sighed.
"For the last time whelpling, yes, I am a goddess, no matter how diminished. You need not ask again. And before you say anything Twilight you are right."
"I wasn't going say anything." I then sighed. "This time."
"So do you hate me yet?"
"What? No, it's not like that it's just Celestia is so kind, and while Luna can be strict she's very emotive and…"
"In other words my daughters are not like me at all. It happens. Other times they are much like their parents. That is just the way things are."
"And all you needed was the bowl?" asked Spike
"Yes, but only because it was a final test. I already had a working theory of what happened, and why if I was right why Gaia would not talk to her daughters."
"I really did always like that name. Who knew it was my actually mine. I must say Ms Sparkle, you've certainly brought some excitement into my life."
"Oh hey." Said Spike "What were you doing in the middle of nowhere anyway?"
"Being left alone. I like to take a break from other ponies every so often. I find my old house near Moosecow is a good place for that. Not perfect, but good."
"Twi, are you even listening."
"It's a first edition Spike, but of course I'm listening."
I wasn't really reading the book in front of me, though I suppose I hadn't let my eyes leave its pages for a while. Whistling Table was an odd pony, but brilliant. His magnum opus of spellcrafting was called the confusing title "101 ways to cook broiled asparagus." It not only was almost always misfiled as a cookbook, but formatted like one, complete with in many cases pictures of food. Mostly it was actually strangely informative dioramas that just happened to be made of food, but for some bizarre reason the entry for an incredibly powerful trueform spell just had two wedges of cheese. The first was some normal enough cheese, the second swiss cheese full of holes. Why in the world would a pony think that was a good representation for a spell that removes illusions and returns things to their proper shape?
"She's going to be like this a while isn't she?" asked Gaia
"Maybe." Said Spike
"I told you I am listening. This looks about the same as that old version we found in Canterlot. Current versions replace the pictures with more sensible things, and alters the title somewhat to denote it is in fact a spellbook."
"I think the one in Ponyville puts, a spellbook, before the rest of the title."
"It's lazy, but at least the Ponyville library used the Dewey system properly. Anyway the point is that this all went really well, though now our last stop becomes an issue."
"Huh what do you mean by…" Spike began, then looked at Gaia "Oh, Luna might totally recognize her huh?"
"That isn't the point boy." Said Gaia
"The point is even if she doesn't I have to tell her. I guess I could put it off a little, but that's not the best idea. Honestly I thought I would have more time to make final decisions but..."
"I was ready to go and had my own airship. I admit I'm a little excited. I've been nearly everywhere, but Cavernus is fairly strict on keeping other ponies out of their nation."
"Yes. Nocturne has no problem with bat ponies mingling among everyone else, or even leaving on occasion herself, but trade is limited to a few smaller cities, and hiding exactly what the bat ponies are is near constant. We're going to the capital."
"Will they even let us in?" asked Spike
"They should. Though we might have to wait at the upper landing docks for a time while things are sorted out, and the rest of the crew might not get in…"
"Thus the ship itself is also barred. I guess I will be coming along as your guest."
"Yes. Especially since I notice two of your crew are bat ponies and you clearly know who and what they are."
"Obviously."
For a while nothing else was said. I put the book back on the shelf and walked over closer to Gaia to see the book she had placed on a reading stand. I couldn’t see the title but a visible page gave me an idea. It was an illustrated manuscript. Full of flowing colors and beautifully penned words. Luna figured prominently on the page. Then I realized I had never seen this book before in my life even though I recognized the style.
"What is that?"
"A religious text. With the way open religion is discouraged it's doubtless not…"
"Princess Celestia isn't like that. I mean sort of, but various religious texts are still published, you just can't talk about them in public. Sort of like the drug laws."
"Hmmm, then perhaps the rumors of Luna being exercised from history are true?"
I looked away, even though she wasn't actually looking at me to begin with. "Well yes, somewhat. But mostly that's been fixed. In fact there might be a copy of that book in Luna's library, even though she isn't fond of religion either."
"Twilight?" asked Spike "Can I ask you a question?"
"I trust it is a new question?" Gaia then gave a short laugh
"Yea. I mean I guess everything sorta fits together now that I think about it, but Twilight, why aren't you freaking out more."
"Spike. It's not like I freak out over every little thing. I…" Then I sighed. "Of course this is anything but little. Do you remember that visit to Canterlot after that one spell I cast on Fluttershy?"
Spike laughed. "Oh yea, you went into full on mumble planning mode. It's this thing where she keeps making these mumbled plans to herself, not even stopping to write them down or most of the time finish them. Then collapses from exhaustion a few days later."
"It was a very stressful time. I mean I figured out I would have to go behind Celestia's back to be absolutely sure."
"And now you are." Added Gaia "I always thought Discord's taunting suggested I had been a threat to him, and thus logically a goddess, but I never imagined I could possibly be Gaia herself."
"Huh, why did you…" Spike then smacked his head. "Duh, you figured out what my next question was going to be."
"Yes. On top of that I do not panic. That is a weakness I never suffered, even when my life as I know it began in great pain being bothered by a mad god that clearly hated me it still seemed utterly pointless to panic."
She turned away from her book and gave me a disappointed look. I cared far less about it than Celestia's slight variance in expression, despite Gaia's being far more obvious and strait forward. It still bothered me a little though. She then walked out of the room. After a moment she stopped, turned back to me, then started walking again.
"Come on Miss Sparkle. You can enjoy my books later, and we aren't done talking."
"That wasn't a request, it was a demand." I said
"Polite requests are for those who are not sure of their authority over another and must placate them with kind words. While you are most certainly my equal to a surprising degree, you are also the student of my daughter. There is no question of my authority, and you would be unlikely to question it besides."
"Hay." Said Spike "That doesn't mean you couldn’t be nicer about it, even if you're probably technically right."
Gaia raised an eyebrow at that. "From a young dragon with your potential? That is most interesting. Still, I am a very powerful woman used to getting what I want. That I have been confirmed a de-powered goddess does not make me feel the need to be more humble. Also this is my ship. Finally, I was not rude, merely stating the way things will go. That is all."
Then she turned back around, then left. I used my magic to put Spike on my back and followed. He immediately began to grumble, but I wasn't really listening. The truth is not only was she royalty, but technically she was Equestria's queen. Though since the position was entirely honorary, and most forgot it even existed much less who held it, what political power she held was questionable. But even ignoring all that the certainty with which she said was so absolute I felt like I should listen anyway. It was terrifying in it's way, even though I could say no if I really wanted to.
"By the way girl, why could you find me when my daughters could not. They seem the type to keep looking."
"Of course. The problem is they were looking for a house, not a wall."
"What?" asked Spike
"Girl, you need to explain that a bit better."
"Despite being very different from the others in countless ways, you're just as much of a piece as the others. You are corrupted with chaos magic, even if in your case it's obviously far less."
"Obviously?" Gaia asked
"Yes. You see magical power is obviously bound to the individual. The only way to change that is either bind it to another individual, or in your case split the individual apart. What Discord's magic did was render most of those parts inanimate."
"But because they have my memories they have a sort of life, thus I lose access to almost all my power. So why am I different?"
"Well because there is some limit to how much you could be shattered. Also unlike the other pieces you have a consciousness. You've partially removed the taint, or at least tamed the chaos magic to a degree to lessen its effect."
"OOO. I get it." Spike said, jumping up and down on my back. It hurt less than normal.
"Spike." It still hurt though. He quickly stopped
"Sorry. Anyway, I totally get it. So magic could target her?"
"No, but her proper aura could be found, which is what we needed. Luna and Celestia are actually the least likely to find you however because they know you so well. They know the all powerful Gaia queen of the earth, not the seemingly normal earth pony stripped of almost all she was."
"I see." Said Gaia "Essentially they are looking for a house where I am but a single wall remaining of that house. So the real question is why were you were looking at metaphorical walls Miss Sparkle."
"Because I know that Fluttershy had a strong connection to these artifacts. I also knew that a resonance matching spell might be able to find something useful. It has some aspects of scrying and locator spells, but doesn't directly target anything, just slowly matches up the distortions in the magical field, usually called auras, and allow you to determine the location of anything that matched."
"Was I really the only match?"
"There were probably some weaker matches below the threshold I set, and I was prepared to lower the threshold if I had problems with a match, but I didn't."
"Where are we going anyway?" asked Spike
"You shall see young one. We are almost there."
Then we walked into a garden. I had to do a double take. It was a real garden though light pouring in though windows of some sort of strange magic. This room was inside Gaia's most traditional of airship's, it being shaped like an actual boat supported by a balloon, but this room might as well have been outside. There was even a pleasant breeze. There were also a few benches.
"Take a seat miss Sparkle. If you aren't comfortable enough I can have some pillows or even alternate seating brought in, but you are going to tell me some things."
"Things?" Spike and I asked
Gaia turned away from us looking at her plants. "Yes. I plan to do some much needed weeding, while you are going to tell me everything you can about my daughters. I will never win an award for mother of the year, but I have still missed 2000 plus years of their lives thanks to that insane fool. I have a lot of time to make up for."
"And you think…."
"That the personal student of Celestia knows far more about her than intelligence reports would say, and knows the secretive princess of the moon better than any other pony alive? Yes. I suppose it's best we start with Luna."
"Does that mean I can go?" asked Spike
"No. After all, Celestia is virtually your mother correct?"
Spike nodded, then stopped when she didn't turn around
"So you'll both talk. Because even if I get my memories back, I can not possibly remember the last 2000 years of their life."
"But does that mean…"
"I know what history tells me of Equestria's immortal rulers, even the parts near erased. I want to know her favorite tea. I want to know if she inherited my terrible taste in food. I want to know…"
Then she broke down crying. For a while I just stood there not able to process what was happening. Then I suddenly understood. She came to a room where her tears could fall to the ground without leaving evidence. I really wasn't sure how well it would go over but I walked over to her and gave the crying mare a hug. Deep down she does have a soft side.
"I can't kill you, but I will make your life endless torture if you tell anypony of this."
"What?"
"You have no idea what I am capable. That said, I thank you."
Really deep down. Of course to add to the abject terror there was confusion. I wanted to ask why she's clearly assuming I'm immortal, but it did not seem like a good time. Needless to say I felt very awkward comforting her, but didn't dare let go either.