Five Finger Artificer

♠♠♠ Two Decades after Nightmare Moon's Banishment ♠♠♠

"Is it safe?" The soft voice of Princess Celestia loses itself down into the darkness, their only light from her horn as Alicorn and Minotaur stand side by side to look upon what has just begun to bare fruit.

"No. But for all of you, quite safer still." The deeper voice just alongside the softer one echoes down and all about with a few more from much farther down. "We finally went and got things flowing where they be needing. You should begin to see the crystals forming which will be safer for you and your ponies to work with compared to the raw liquid."

"I cannot thank you enough for all that you've done for us." Offering a small smile with little more able to be given. "Our kingdom is starting anew once more, but this will help ever so much for those who struggle to expand where we must."

"For quite some time word had been that something such as this might happen. That for all the freedoms of control you exert across your lands you're held hostage to it's needs more than any other would ever tolerate." Peering down into the darkness of his own handy work. "Some would even say that you lot deserved no less than to fall as hard as you did."

"I know." Her solemn voice unable to hide her sadness to the fact. "Our coffers have never been quite full of what others would deem most valuable, and these last few years such truths have never been more painful. But we endure, as we always shall."

"Long after I've become one with the dirt, I'm sure." Laughing to the joke that his companion couldn't even fathom.

"I do not enjoy your sense of humor, I must admit."

"You laughed when I made a joke about getting stuck between a rock and a hard place down there."

"I thought you were actually joking with how you carried on like a loon." Showing her lack of appreciation to finding out after the fact. "Had I known it was because you had several broken ribs-" Grimacing to the memory. "You are such a beast, Darus."

"But luck would have it there lay near a fair maiden to mend the wounds of such a unruly savage, no less."

"I never said you were a savage. I said a beast. There is a definitive difference for one such as yourself."

"Speaking of beasts." He moves forward with the smile eroding away to speaking more grim. "You'll still need to watch if anything tries and makes their way topside. They're as dangerous to all of you as the stuff they live in."

"I've decided to build the castle on top of this very mountain. There lay many a fertile ground, or even upon the very clouds themselves, for which I was encouraged to claim for my own." Pushing a little more into her horn, as the glimmer of budding crystal fruit reflect from much farther down. "But that would only take the best from those who deserve the most."

"Some might call that just being fair." Humming to himself while looking up towards the clear night sky. Looking around to find absolutely no obstruction to the view, he needn't say what is already understood. "You'll need some help making the stone."

"Pardon?"

"If we're going to do this, then we'll do it right. If you just use common stone to build around the dig you'll only smother what you're hoping to gradually bleed off into the air and surrounding land." Rubbing the bottom of his muzzle with his hand. "And if you don't do it right, you'll eventually find yourself perched up here alone since the corrosion buildup will hurt normal ponies."

"I am fully prepared to do what I must." Paying more attention to he whom gives none. "I will not allow-"

"Going to take quite some time to get the right composition to resonate like a sponge, but I think we can get this done within a few decades at most." Nodding only to himself before starting to pace about. "Did you say something?"

"Why, yes I did." Breathing a little harder. "Quite a few somethings."

"Bah, well, you'll have plenty of time over the next twenty years so don't worry none." Pounding his fist into his other open hand with another idea coming in as hard as the Alicorn following closely behind the sudden stoppage. "I got it!"

"I wish you wouldn't do these random things." She raises her foreleg to rub the end of her muzzle. "How would I even pay you? The coffers are almost empty after importing so much to survive and even then, there isn't much worth outside of Equestria."

"Celestia."

"Yes Dar-" Startled into a moment of silence before recollecting herself. "Luna?"

"Are you alright?"

"Just felt the need to visit a old friend." Using her hooves to move around some of the ornaments and flowers set before the grave marking, of which remains secluded in darkness save for the ever burning fire bowl atop. "One sorely missed."

Coming up alongside, Luna too is brought back to years mostly long forgotten save for the ones who lived them. Fearing to admit this being the first time both sisters sat before the marker, she searches in silence for knowledge she does not have.

"We never found him." Pulling from a voice only used in such privacy. "He had made himself to be quite the entertainer among those who came to help build the castle, and even those just coming to visit. When word spread he had gone missing, many came to help search for anything that might let us know." Scraping her hoof against the hard stone ground. "It was here."

Staring forward, Luna chooses to remain the listener, for a little longer.

"We took every precaution allowed to us at the time to remain vigilant to what I, to this day, have never seen. Now we must send request for help once more without ignorance a shield to the dangers that may very well befallen any who might make attempt." Sighing in frustrations. "I find myself in conflict, far too often, of just how ill-practiced I must remain from what I preach."

"The Minotaur value absolution to one's family and ally, especially in the face of death staring back upon them." Extending her wing to rest against Celestia's. "And if I may be so bold, then Darus the Minotaur could not of asked for any better song sung."

"When his brother came to gather his belongings, he said the very same." Giving a light nestle with her wing right back. "He also vowed if the time were to come again, then so would one of them for as long as the bloodline continues."

"Then you mustn't dishonor word or memory." Luna firmly nods while looking into the gentle flame that suddenly flares into a small inferno that neither sister seems to physically acknowledge as abnormal. "Remember ghost, she sleeps in the west tower."

"I'll have to leave directions, perhaps, so that he doesn't end up with the wrong sister." Flashing her sister a warning that lifts Luna's brow in surprise before offering a smile instead. "Some things are not meant to be shared."

"Might that be why you have yet to talk to Princess Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony?"

"I'd wish not to cause them to doubt themselves. It was Tirek's doing, not their own."

"Then, would I not share in the blame as well?" Luna turns towards Celestia slightly turns away. "Tirek, Discord, myself? There surely lays blame all around for why each time the Elements have been used. But that does not change what is used, nor from where."

"Were they were to know the truth, what then?" Wishing not to carry such conversation before one whose sacrifice would be tarnished with each word. "Of why we can no longer flourish within the Everfree? Or when Cloudsdale floated near the final battlefield against Tirek it started to fall from the sky? That the slow decline in harvest for our dear earth ponies will continue to worsen?"

Trotting to catch her sister, Luna huffs to the stubbornness.

"Ponies will become afraid. They will attempt to find comfort in solution not yet found, and when they fail in doing so, some will turn to blame. I refuse to see good ponies torn down to such insecurities ever again."

Luna brings her wing up to hush Celestia's muzzle before the cavern exit, who jumps from the sudden act.

"If you have one fault that you've carried like a scar that won't mend, it's doing everything on your own."

"Mmhmm." Celestia tries to speak, and then vigorously blows on the feathers to no avail. "Mmm!"

"If you're done, then I think together we finally send the request so that we might prepare ourselves for whatever may come in the days ahead." Finally bringing her wing back in. "I shouldn't need to fight you to help you."

Taken back by the action and words, Celestia looks upon her sister with guilt overtaking anything else that remained. Meeting eye to eye, while hesitant, they find agreement through contradiction of how each wishes to guide their shared kingdom, and sometimes even each other. Sealing the door behind them, they move forward for different reasons and expectations.