Making choices

Luna helped her uncle get back on his hooves. Hase hadn't used a powerful version of the spell (Vortex later deduced its potential was somewhere around 15%), so he was only stunned for seconds. Besides from thanking his niece, the black alicorn didn't say a single word before he headed to the back of the group, away from the rest. Confused by the recent events and wanting to know what had really happenned, Luna followed him three minutes afterwards, time which she utilized to have a private discussion with her sister. After Celestia encouraged her, Luna turned around and weaved her way through the large group, burning her left forehoof a bit when passing by Blaze.

When she was already near the wagon, the dark blue alicorn saw she had gained an assistant in her task. Applejack stood by her side and stopped at the same time the princess came to halt.

" What drives you to accompany me, Applejack? " the princess of the night asked, as the two climbed on the small sitting edge of the wooden wagon, that allowed ponies to use it as a bench, if too tired. The wagon was long, so the two could have their conversation without worrying, that Vortex would hear them from the other end.

" Well, Princess, ah just taught ya uncle might need sumpony ta speak ta. " the orange earth pony responded.

" I'm sure that is one of the reasons, but I'm also certain this is not the main reason for your act, am I not correct? " the princess spoke. Even though Applejack would never lie, nopony claimed she had to say the whole truth all the time.

" Yah're right. " the farmer mare agreed.

" Wha' really bugs mah'n da girls 's da whole thing with Sombra's magic. We were all happy ta hear Hase's no longer got anythin' 'gainst his pa, but we ain't very happy 'bout him usin' the kind 'f magic he used. Da last pony usin' it held crystal ponies fur his slaves. "

Luna nodded.

" I share your concerns, Applejack. The magic our friend used was most concerning for both me and my sister. I too am in need of an immediate explanation to this tangled situation. "

" Let's get to it, then. " the earth pony responded.

The black alicorn couldn't enjoy the sollitude he had wished for himself for more than a few minutes, since soon he was in the company of an orange earth pony and a dark blue alicorn. They said nothing, they just sat behind him on the sitting edge and threw occasional glimpses at him or eachother. The duo also exchanged tongue clicks, nodds and several other signals. Annoyed with this pantomime, that lasted several minutes, the alicorn stallion finally gave up and spoke:

" What do you two want? "

" Ta be honest, " AJ's responce came quickly.

" ,it wasn't very helpful of yah ta leave us all w'thout any explanation 'bout anythin'. Yah just ran away, leavin' us all wonder what yar son's gotten himself in. "

" 'Twas very satisfying to see the paternal relationship between you two strengthen, but all of us were left in a dire need to be informed about Hase's new and probably hazardous magic. " Luna picked up where Applejack had stopped.

The contrast between the farmer's accent and Luna's too formal language all but unnerving, the violet- maned alicorn realized, that if he wanted to avoid further interrogation by those two, he'd have to satisfy their curiosity.

" Fine. " he gave up.

" I hope you'll transmit my words to the rest, as I am not in the mood for repeating. "

After the two mares swore by Pinkie Pie's oath, the black stallion was ready to begin.

" I'm not going to say everything, since it will take me too long. Only the most importrant things. Listen carefully, as every small detail is importrant. "

The two mares, sitting on the stallion's two sides, prepared to listen carefully. Nothing could prepare them for the story they were about to hear.

" An unimaginable amount of millenia ago, the first pony world came into existence. The first pony was the Godess Creator of ponykind, Lauren Faust. She created the ponies, although that's irrelevant right now. What matters is what she did after many years of ruling this world. Unicorns were playing with magic. Magic is not what you think. It's not a singe entity, but the mix of the two basic magical entities: Light and Darkness. After the level of one exceeded the unicorn's limit, the pony was possessed... by themself, actually. The entity, no matter which, eliminated his self- control and hoofed control of the body to the deep desires the unicorn feared to express.

In order to keep those in check, Faust chose two ponies to be the Envoys of Light and Darkness. Those ponies, even though not unicorns, had absolute control of their respective entity, and could therefore keep the possessed ponies in check with their united power. They could also heal them. Even after Unia fell apart to an infinity of pony words, the Envoys remained two, their combined power big enough to twist fate in all pony worlds in such a way, that possessed ones were always defeated. "

Even though Luna knew the story, she was surprised, as she realized she didn't even know the half of it. It was a story her father had told her and Tia when they were still small fillies. However, she had never heard the details Vortex encompassed. Having heard it at least one hundred times, the alicorn mare still remembered it word for word. However, she left the memory for later. Now she had to listen to her uncle's version of the story.

" The post of an Envoy passed from pony to pony, only choosing the worthy. Even though the Envoys were immortal, they could be wounded and killed like any normal pony. For reasons, unknown to me, Hase was born as the Envoy of Darkness and he still is, as we saw today. Wanting to keep the balance in the multiverse, I contacted two ponies from another world. The mare had just given birth to a filly, the Envoy of Light. As their world was coming to an end, they allowed me to take their daughter and save her from imminent death. Her name was Elysia.

Hase and Elly, as he and his mother called her, grew up together, not knowing about eachother's powers. At a certain age, I revealed myself to her, and over the years taught her how to use her powers. During Hase's conflict with Celestia, she requested, that we reveal ourselves and help him. Suspecting, that this conflict was going to turn into a full- pledged war if my existence was revealed, I refused. One day she tried to do it herself. Luckily, I stopped her on time. To demotivate her, I erased every memory Hase had about her. Don't think I liked doing so. Elysia was as close to me as if she were my own daughter.

I don't know what happened next. I suppose she laid low, just like me, waiting for my son to show up. She has met him somewhere in this dimension, probably she was the one, who ponynapped him. He's in good hooves. The one thing that worries me is the bow. Hase keeps getting the weapons at an alarmingly fast rate. He's out of our reach now, so all we could do is hope he doesn't get the helmet before we meet in Mouthguard. " the alicorn finished.

Now Luna could recall the memory of her father telling her the story of Queen Faust.

" Once upon a time, in a far away land... "

The alicorn chuckled, as she remembered how she and Tia argued wheter it's farther than Prance or not. Their father would always interrupt them and say:

" One day, my dears, you will understand how far away this beautiful land was. Just not today. "

His story went on, just like their uncle's, with the world Unia and Lauren Faust, the Godess Creator. While Vortex had skipped the beautiful part of the story, the creation of ponykind, Solarion always told it in details:

" ... as the first pencil and the first notebook were created, she opened the booklet, put her pencil down on the first page and drew the first line ever. Over the following hours, she ripped off many sheets of paper, dissatisfied with the result. Until eventually, she stepped back and observed the final version of her sketch. Those two ponies, the first mare and the first stallion, were neither too edgy, nor too smooth; neither too tall, nor too short. They looked like everypony, or, to be exact, everypony would look like them.

After she painted them in beautiful colours, the godess decided the time had come. She used her magic to bring the duo into existence. They almost instantly developed a personality, a mind and feelings and the godess was alone no more. However, after creating a second couple, she decided the ponies were getting too monotonous. She drew a few more sketches. Some ponies were a bit smaller, some a bit taller; she drew unicorns, pegasi, unicorns, and, yes, even alicorns like herself. No mane and tail were like the other, and no single pony looked like another.

A few decades later, their civilisation trived... "

Her father then went on to describing the rule of Queen Faust, until somepony ripped off the magical flower, that maintained ther harmony. An infinity of worlds separated from Unia, an infinity of pony worlds. They were all like it, and yet, none was exactly the same. This tale always managed to put the rebellious Luna and Tia to sleep, no matter how much cake had eaten or how much they wanted to play before that.

A few minutes later, after her feeling of nostalgia left her, Luna realized she had left her two interlocutors in a state of awkward silence. The alicorn mare focused on the problem and glanced at Applejack. After exchanging a few more glares, the two silently agreed, that Luna would speak.

" Uncle, this possession you described bears an uncanny resemblance to the change in Azure Spark you described in your story. If Hase is in deed the de facto Envoy of Darkness, will this cursed jewel actually have any effect at all? Will its mind- bending power work, when the pony carrying it is the one in control of its power source? " she asked.

A faint smile appeared on the black stallion's muzzle.

" I have been thinking the same many times, dear niece. If the Eye of the Necropolis is actually powered by Darkness, its effect on Hase would be insignificant. However, we barely know anything about it. I'd prefer not to take risks when it comes to my son's well- being and I am sure you would agree with me.

I am also sure there's one final reason for your interest in me, besides your desire to make me feel better - and I assure you I do feel better now. Just as Hase himself, you probably wonder what I am hiding. Make no mistake, I will not tell you. I will not tell anypony, until the right time has come. I have sworn an oath to somepony as precious to my heart as Hase. All I can say to you is that all of those secrets are kept only for his own good. "