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C r e a t i o n

Nightjar

Prologue

They gazed up into the night sky and witnessed the end of a war. They watched the final battle between the Light and the Void.

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"What do you think happens to the one of us who goes, brother?" The Lord of Light asked with his thousand voices as he hovered over the Path.
"Well, little one, that requires an answer that does not exist and you know it. And we both knew from the beginning who would go and that point of our existence arrives now. So ready yourself, brother." The sharp, cold and soundless voice of the older one stopped without any kind of echo and a black glowing orb appeared in his right hand and quickly formed into a long and broad knife with a crescent tip-half. On his other arm a shield began to form out of stellar mist, building a mirroring surface.

"I see you still appreciate my gift. What an irony." He spread his six wings and pushed forward, his slender, serpentine body cutting through space as he snapped for his brother. He was stopped though when his dagger-like teeth got obstructed by the blade of his opponent and he was thrown to the side as the shield hit him.
The Void soon stood over him, his blade raised. But he was flung backward by a force field of his younger brother who simultaneously rolled onto his stomach and turned around to face the charging foe who slammed him into an invisible wall. The Lord of Light groaned from the impact and used his tail to hit his brother, who therefore missed with his knife. The hit was immediately followed by dozens of ethereal blades but the Master of Nothingness caught them with the shield. As he lowered it again the Light rammed into him, shoving his counterpart backwards who tried to stab him again. But the other one dived to the side and used that position to wrap himself around his brother, shackling him.

"I know you saw my dispersal and you being the one causing it. But you didn't look further.", he whispered into his captives ear.
"This is not right! You have to perish! Otherwise this world will, taking us both with it! You already destroyed one and I forgave you, but this time there will be no forgiveness for there will be no existence! Not even the void will survive this!"

"Nevertheless,", the winged serpent continued, ignoring his brother, "I did. And I saw the end of this world. But we both know that an end is also a new beginning. Our time here is over. We are not what we were and it's time to begin anew."

He let go of his brother and hovered in-front of him.
As they stood there they looked deep into each others eyes. They tried to find what the other thought to react to it properly. They assessed each other for a long time only reading in silence to try and figure the out the counterpart.

Then a spark inflamed a cold and dull fire in the eyes of the Void and a grin spread over his face. The Bringer of Light tensed up but only a sad and tired smile showed on his muzzle as he relaxed again. Then he felt the knife in his chest.

"The thing is, I was there before you and thus I will be there when you are long gone. A new beginning? No. A new time? Yes. I am the Void. I am the non-existent; therefor I can not not exist. Farewell, brother." With these words the blade began to pulse and the Lord of Existence quivered in pain.

"Nngh. Yes brother. You will be there and I won't. You will know reincarnation and the only thing that will be left of me is my reign and realm. But I will have an heir and you lesser might for that is the only way in can become a better world." That said he embraced his brother with his wings and gathered his last reserves. The eyes of the Void showed disbelieve, doubt, fear and anger as the Light let loose his power.

Her

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C r e a t i o n

Nightjar

Chapter One

She flew pretty high and her vans cut through the icy air. The moon and the stars shone brightly causing the clouds under her to glisten in their light. She did it again! I can't believe it! How dare she to treat me like a foal in front of everypony?! And why can I never come back at her?! Her home lay several miles behind her by now and her ire-fueled wing beats drove even more distance between them. She began to feel for every movement of her muscles allowing her to soar through the sky. Concentrating on the blissful exhaustion she stopped flapping them in the pace of fury and instead slowed the semi-circle movement but gave every gentle stroke enough power to hold her velocity. She soon lost herself in the feeling of flight.

The scenery below began with lush meadows spreading wide along the edges of the woods she just came from. Slowly, the further she flew, hills began to grow from the plain and after enough time they became pointier and higher and soon she passed the first mountain. That made her realize how long she had flown. It would only take around three hours for the moon to set and the sun to rise and suddenly a huge yawn escaped her. Deciding that it was time to head home she let out a sigh and set her wings to make the change in direction. That was when she lost control. Her pennons, used to one form of motion and worn from the hours of flight overdid the angle. The suddenness of the turn took her off-guard and her instinctive try to correct it only made it worse.
She was falling now, trying to catch herself and regain reign over her body. She wasn't falling in a ninety-degree descent but more like seventy-five and it would let her crash straight into the side of the mountain.

It was two-hundred meters till impact.
She tried to flap her wings synchronous but failed badly.

One-hundred Meters.
In desperation she just closed her wings.

Fifty Meters.
When she felt the right angle she snapped them open and the following pain assured her that she had caught herself. She let out a deep sigh and looked down at the mountainside. There something unexpected was caught in her view. There was a hole. A hole in the mountain. Though the proper term probably was cave. An idea struck her mind. She was tired and her wings still ached from the mid fall catch; so why not glide down there to seek a little rest? She decided in favor of her thoughts and floated towards and through the entrance.

As she landed she found herself in a wide but low-ceilinged cavern. Hardened dust and gravel scrunched under her hooves as she slowly made her way inside and looked around. The light which shone quite a few yards through the entrance made it possible for mosses and lichens to grow. Though the plants and fungi were able to survive even further in than the purview of light, the illumination stopped pretty soon and behind it only inky blackness was seen. Except for some blinking reflections a little distance into the cave.

Curiosity took hold of her and she trotted on, examining her surroundings. There was no hesitation when she crossed the light-line and soon enough her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. She passed dense rows of stalactites - which caused her to duck more than once - , stalagmites - which she tripped over way to often - and stalagnates - which blocked her way enough times to get annoying. Then she reached one source of the gleaming. It was a pink crystal high enough to make her look up slightly and thick enough to make it hard to hug it fully.
She slowly circumambulated the glassy stone. It looked very much like cut rose quartz though something seemed of. Crystals these sizes were normally found in the eponymous empire far in the north.

She came to a halt in front of the stone again and tilted her head sideward. She slowly raised one of her forelegs and gently touched the object. She furrowed her brow when she felt a light tremor emitting from it and lowered her leg again. This was going to be interesting. She began to trot away, still looking at the crystal.

The further she went the more of these crystals grew from the stone around her. They mostly appeared in small groups in hollows in the basalt which bore a great resemblance to geodes. Though one of those stony bubbles had and opening in the back and she cautiously made her way towards it. She tried to look into the darkness behind it but this deep into mountain not even her eyes were able to amplify the residual light. She slowly climbed through the hole and ignited her horn, illuminating the room before her.

It was same kind of giant geode itself. Those crystals were everywhere, growing from and into every direction. They carried the magical light even further than it originally could have shone. And that's how she saw the ball. It sat there only a dozen yards away, held between crystals forming some kind of pedestal. It also was surrounded by step-like stone slabs adding an altar-like flair. That all gave it the feeling of being supposed to sit there, just like somepony or something had placed it. This place really seemed awfully artificial.

And that made her suspicious. Who would or even could have done something like this? What was that orb? Why did somepony think it was worth the amount of work needed to create this chapel?

I probably should come back later. Maybe I should discuss this with my dear sister. She blinked. No. Why should she? That would only support her sister's opinion on her and she needed to proof to her that she was no foal anymore to finally gain some respect.

Her mind made up she firmly walked towards the globe. It looked like it was made of some kind of semiprecious stone. It was green with thin red veins and slightly oval. As she reached it she looked at it from every side and it really seemed like it hadn't grown but been placed here. Though that happened probably a very long time ago because some of the crystals holding it had grown around it. She warily touched it but couldn't feel anything except for its perfectly smooth surface. She furrowed her brow in contemplation and after a few seconds nodded to herself. She took a few steps back and reached out with her magic cautiously caressing the ball. Nothing happened. She let go off the breath she'd held and thought about what she could do else than just look at it. She could think of something but the spell hasn't been properly tested yet and she didn't really want to risk a cave-in. It was something she had observed her bats doing to navigate in the dark. It was an intricate spell because it didn't just produce some sound but also built a filter which used the sound to show the image. What was even more difficult was to get the right pitch and note otherwise the object to be scanned could get damaged.
In hesitation she slowly circled the pedestal. She bit her lip while she played chess with the pros and cons. Eventually a thought pushed itself further and further into her consciousness until it overwrote any other one and she muttered it under her breath. "Screw it."

She began to concentrate on the spell and slowly raised the two-layered projection-field. Then she built the second layer of the spell under the first in the form of a hemisphere which was connected to a cylinder which would work as the equalizer. Then she activated the spell and began to search for the right sonority. It took a little fiddling but in the end she received an image. It showed the surface of the orb.

Frustrated she let out a huff and amplified the sound and this time it showed what an inch into the sphere was. It looked somehow fluid but had no matter. This is magic! This stone is filled with pure magic! She scanned two inches deeper and there she saw a disturbance. It was a long rope-like thing that was curled up in the middle of the ball. She looked at it for only a few seconds then she caught sight of something pulsing. Not sure if it had been a fallacy or not she stared at it for several seconds longer. And the pulsation repeated itself. What is that? It took several more pulse beats for her to get near the realization. With the eighth one her eyes grew and her pupils shrank in cognition. With the ninth her spell fizzled out as she stumbled back with shock on her features. It's alive!

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She had sat there for at least an hour, her mind reeling around the impossibility of something like this until she noticed that she began to refer to it as an egg. At that point the full meaning of what she just had found out caught up with her.

What am I supposed to do?! Her eye twitched. Oh this was all her fault. Why did she have to let her curiosity get the better of her? Look where it got you!, she scolded herself. She should just turn around and fly back home. It had been a ridiculous idea to fly off in the first place. Why had she done it, again? Because she was angry that her sister had embarrassed her in front of all the ministers? What a pitiful reason! She had acted so..childish...it...

It hurt. It hurt so much. She was sure that wasn't her sister's intention. But somehow that hurt, too, if not even more. She so wanted to forgive her but it became harder every time. They had their moments when they shared their daily experiences and joked around. They also tried to eat together which was difficult because of their different schedules. But then there were those times when they argued fiercely though these altercations were mostly concerning subjects that no normal pony would care for. And then her sister always found a way to make herself the look like the reasonable one despite the fact that mainly she started them.

Desperately trying to derail that train of thought she looked up at the egg and started thinking. I could just leave. No, she wouldn't be able to sleep without further investigating this thing.

I could take it with me. No, she didn't know if it would have an effect on the egg.
Then what?! Shall I just sit here and wait till it hatches?! She let out a frustrated huff and stood up. She walked towards it and asked it directly: "What shell I do with you?" Of course there was no answer. She let out a heavy sigh and lay down. Slowly she levitated the ball down and in front of her, still trying to figure what to do.
Maybe she could think of something when she wasn't tired. And so she lay down her head, closed her eyes and quickly drifted off into sleep. Without her magical light the cavern was again filled with blackness and not a single sound could be heard. Though it wasn't some wearing quietude but a warm and reassuring tranquility.

A crack disturbed the silence of the cave and it soon was followed by other ones. Startled her head shot up and her mind out of the dullness of slumber. Her gaze quickly went to the source of the noise. Oh, of course it would hatch now! Why not?! She jumped up and watched as the fissures in the head-sized orb became wider and wider. She realized that it wasn't necessary for her to ignite her horn because the cave already was illuminated by the green glow from the leaking magic from within the egg. She watched in awe as the shards slowly hovered away from the heart of the glow and orbited around it. The brightness of the incandescence increased and she had to squint her eyes to at least see something. Then everything stopped and it all got sucked right into the center and the cave was poured in darkness once more.

Slowly a blue luminescence emitted from the tip of her horn. She still stared at the place where the light show had just happened. But instead of the egg there now lay a creature. She couldn't tell if it was breathing so she leaned closer to it. She still wasn't able to tell anything so she took a step closer and leaned down.

It was a snake. Before her lay a snake. It didn't belong to any kind she'd heard about though and she was sure that there weren't any kinds which backs were covered in tomentum. And she still couldn't tell if it was breathing! Somehow that unnerved her deeply and she reached out with her magic and gently tapped the creature with it. And really it's unusually expressive eyes opened and it blinked several times. It raised itself high enough to nearly touch her nose and tilted its head. It then leaned forward and poked her muzzle. She smiled and puffed through her nostrils into the face of the serpent. Thereupon it recoiled slightly and gave off a light hiss. That reminded her that this creature might have poison fangs. Her eyes went wide and she recoiled, too, which startled the snake even more and it slithered away, trying to hide behind one of the crystals.

"Uhm...H-hey! I'm sorry! I didn't want to scare you!" She cautiously trotted towards the crystal behind which the reptile had vanished and took a peek around. There it cowered and looked up at her with wide eyes. What am I supposed to do? ... Why do I keep asking that question? Because of her renewed indecision and the serpent's wary stiffness an awkward silence fell over them and neither one seemed to be going to break it.

Thinkthinkthink! What shell I do?...What does it want me to do? Retreat? Stay still?? A hug??? She let out an exasperated sigh and turned around. Her head hanging she walked towards a comparatively soft looking spot on the cave floor and lay down to rest for she still felt tired and exhausted. Even more so since the excitement from before ebbed away.

Meanwhile the snake began to relax and its natural curiosity got the better of it. It crept around the crystal and watched her as she lay down and closed her eyes. It wiggled towards her while very now and then it cautiously stopped and watched. Eventually it reached her and sat in front of her nose. It slowly reached forward with its head and then poked her again.
She opened her eyes to look into the expectant ones of the creature which birth she had witnessed and raised an eyebrow. A small smile played at the corners of her lips. Somehow she found the worming pearl serpent adorable. She had always liked children for they still carried innocence and purity and it never was a burden for them. And she also could see these things in the eyes of this newborn animal. No, not animal. This one is too self-aware. Her smile grew and she poked back while blowing a gust of air in its face. Its response was to open his mouth wide, hiss, close his mouth and then nuzzle her. Somehow that made her grin. Then it did something even cuter. It slithered to her chest and curled up against it. It yawned and then drowsily lay its head down though still looking up into her eyes.

She had watched it with raised brows and an amused smile. Then she noticed something. I can't call it it the hole time. I need a name...and a gender...Which I surely won't find out without showing it to a veterinarian. She let out a groan but immediately stopped as she felt movement against her chest. She looked down again and saw the worry in the serpents green eyes. She bent her head down and nuzzled the creature reassuringly. "Sorry, but you'll have to wait for your name." She watched it calm down and drift off into sleep. And by the way. "My name is Luna."

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C r e a t i o n

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!"

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"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.

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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.

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"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.

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"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.

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"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."

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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!"

Creation

by Nachtschwalbe

End

Her

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