Capital

Madash had many faces, Twinkle Star realised as she saw the capital of the country for the first time, it being located on the slopes of the dunes. The little cottages she had passed the last two days had all been really different, true, but none of them compared to the magnificence she saw now. Some of the houses had been made of the same wood as Jiro’s house, some were made of stone, some poorer ones were made of regular wood… But not this. As the city came into view from the top of the dune, the first thing she noticed where the large white buildings. There were quite a few of them, and one larger one a little outside the city. All the other streets and houses in the city were made of the same white stone, but none of them could compare to the large buildings. She realised they were build on stone pillars, large and round who carried the roofs.
“Amazing….” She whispered.

“It is…” Crystal said, just as soft as Twinkle Star. “It’s so different from the rest of the country we have seen so far.” She observed.
 “Yeah. It’s obvious where all the hard work went. No wonder Jiro said we would be surprised.” Twinkle Star said, and immediately regretted it. She didn’t want to mention Jiro to her sister. When they left his little house two days ago, she had been really sad, and Twinkle Star had tried to get her sister’s mind off it, but it hadn’t really worked. Crystal hadn’t talked about it, but Twinkle Star was sure she was constantly thinking of him. She had considered to propose she could go back to him after their visit to the capital, but she didn’t want to get Crystal’s hopes up. She would propose it after they were done with their business here.

Twinkle Star wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed when Crystal didn’t reply, but instead simply began to continue to follow the road. Slowly Twinkle Star followed her sister, unsure if she had to say something or not. She looked at the capital town once again, and realised how majestic it looked. She didn’t know it was this big, nor this beautiful. It wasn’t right to call it a town, it definitely was a city. Twinkle Star wouldn’t be surprised if it was just as big as Kise, the capital city of Kin. Only this place wasn’t build upon one large hill, but in the various slopes of the dunes, while it ended at the beach itself. It was so much more gracious than Kise; even the smallest house appeared to be in great shape, and the white stone made the city look so much prettier than the grey stone that was used in Kin. Of course, this had to do with the climate and the availability of stones, but Twinkle Star couldn’t help but being more awed by this city than with Kise. Twinkle Star realised she didn’t even know what the capital was called, and she suddenly wondered if it even had a name.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the city. Fifteen minutes later they walked through the gates, which were guarded by two ponies who only nodded at them. Security here wasn’t as high as in Kise, but maybe it didn’t have to be. Twinkle Star didn’t know, but she was happy she didn’t had to answer any questions. As they walked though the city, Twinkle Star noticed it was way les crowded than Kise, and much cleaner. The air didn’t smell like ponies, but like the ocean, like the rest of the country did. All the streets were clean and looked in fine condition. They soon found out the larger pillar-based buildings were public buildings; one of them was the government building where ponies had to come for problems and registration of children, one was for hot baths, something Twinkle star didn’t think would be in a country like this, and they realised the library would be a building like this, too, which made searching for it a lot easier. As it wasn’t even midday yet, they decided to go to the library first, before finding a place to stay the following nights.

It still took them over thirty minutes to find the library, but it truly was one of the prettiest of the large buildings. The large pillars were decorated with carvings of waves and the shores, of boats and, above the entrance, of a pony wearing a crown. Next to the entrance was a plate which told them more about this particular building.

‘This building was build to celebrate the foundation of Madash, and is with that the oldest building the country knows, as it is now well over 2000 years old. Protected by ancient magic, the building has never suffered any decease and has never been hurt by the salt sea air, which is affecting many of the modern buildings. It was used as a palace in the first few hundred years  of the country’s existence, but after the completion of the current palace it has been used for various functions, including a sea guard, princely palace and, as is it’s current purpose, a library.’

“Ancient magic, eh…” Twinkle Star wondered out loud. She was pretty sure some kind of royal powers were involved, but outside of the old Friendship Lands, there wasn’t much known about them, as not many other countries had looked into them, simply because their royal family didn’t have much. She knew Tokowa did know a lot about them, but she didn’t know about Madash. Anyway, the one to force magic upon a building like this, to have it last for such a long time… He or she had to be rather powerful. She made a mental note to check some other book about the history of Madash, too.
“Shall we enter?” She proposed to her sister, who nodded in response.

When she entered the building through the large stone gate, Twinkle Star immediately felt the magic as the plate in the front said. She couldn’t really describe it, but she felt that the place was …. Protected. It had been dear to someone, and that person had used everything to protect this place until the end of time. She was sure she could only feel this because of her royal powers, and maybe her mother or Stelline would be able to tell even more of this person and his or her reasons.

It was rather dark inside, as the hallway had no windows whatsoever. There were only torches on both sides of the hall, and at the end of it was a desk lit by a few candles. Twinkle Star noticed a pony sitting behind it, and she decided it had to be a clerk or something. She approached the desk, and the pony behind the desk noticed them.
“Hello there. May I help you with something?” the pony asked, and Twinkle Star replied: “Well, we were looking for some books about… a certain aspect of the history of Madash.”
“Ah. Please follow me.” The pony walked away from her desk and opened the large wooden door on the right.
“May I ask which part you are looking for?” She asked, as she motioned them to follow her.
“We… it’s about the attack of the sea monster, which was solved with the aid of the Friendship Lands.” Twinkle Star answered as she followed the pony through a large room which loads and loads of shelves with all kinds of books on them; old books, small books, young books…

The pony abruptly stopped walking. She turned around, and Twinkle Star was surprised to see the lack of trust that was suddenly in the pony’s eyes.
“Are you referring to the sea serpent and his Mind Attacks?” she asked suspiciously.
“I… Yes, I guess. Why?” Twinkle Star asked back, rather unsure by this change of emotion all of a sudden.
“I am sorry, I cannot permit you to those books.” She stated firmly.
“What? Why?” Twinkle Star said surprised.
“Orders from her Royal Highness the Queen Daryia. No one is allowed to read books of that subject unless he or she has her personal permission. I am sorry, I will have to ask you to leave, now.” The pony explained.
“Permission? But how do we get that?”
“You will have to ask her personally. However, you will not be able to get in contact with her. The queen does not meet strangers on a regular basis. I am sorry to disappoint you like this. Please, follow me now.”
The pony led them back to the wooden door and into the hallway. There, she motioned them towards the exit, and both Twinkle Star and Crystal were too stunned to object.

Twinkle Star couldn’t believe she was back on the street once again.
“What on earth?” Crystal asked after a few moments of silence.
“Beats me Crystal, beats me. Did you see the look she gave us when I mentioned the attack? It was like I offended the entire kingdom!”
“Yeah… well, Jiro did mention no one knew anything about a mind seal anymore. Maybe they don’t want it to be common knowledge?” Crystal tried.
“No. I don’t think so. We weren’t even allowed to read anything about the events of that time. I don’t think that is it, Crystal.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know… I suppose we need permission of the queen to get to those books. SO I suppose we’re going to have to try to get that.” Twinkle Star answered her sister.
“Yeah, but how? She said we would never even be able to see her.”
That was true… but there had to be a way. Daryia… Queen Daryia…

“Maybe, just maybe…”
“What?” Crystal asked curiously.
“Well… Daryia… She’s married to Matoe, right? You know who Matoe is. He’s our mother’s cousin. We could pretend to be on an official errand for mother. I’m sure they can’t deny that. They’ll have to let us in. And once we are, we can explain everything to Daryia and Matoe. I’m sure they’ll listen to us, and they’ll understand. After all, even Togli is their family.” Twinkle Star explained, as they walked down the streets, leaving the library behind them.
“Are you sure that will work?” Crystal doubted.
“I don’t know… But I don’t see any other options. The way that pony sounded, I’d be surprised if the queen would agree to meet some regular travelers. Not even mother does that all the time. No, Crystal, I’m afraid we’ll have to use our real identity this time.”
Twinkle Star could hear in the sigh of her sister, that this was not something she was looking forward too, and even Twinkle Star wasn’t sure if she liked it. Making this an official state visit would mean it would be recorded, ponies would suddenly know who they are, and it would be impossible to travel quietly. Of course, it would provide them with the best inns and the best food by only showing their pendant, but somehow it felt wrong to be treated well only you could prove where your family came from. Still, there was nothing to do about it now, if they wanted to succeed with their mission.

“Why don’t we search for an inn for tonight, and take the rest of the day off to enjoy the city? I feel like I need some rest, and I would like to see more of this place. It’s gorgeous, and I would like to see the museum we saw earlier. We’ll take out our pendants tomorrow morning, and we’ll go to the palace then. I don’t feel like living by rules and behaving as a princess should yet, what about you?” Twinkle Star winked at her sister, and Crystal smiled back.
“Me neither. I would like to relax a bit, too. Not that I’m tired, just more… to be prepared. It’s been a while since we acted like princesses, right?”

As she lifted her head, she could see them walking through the trees. More, she could clearly hear them walking though the snow. They didn’t even try to be silent, but then again, who would in this forsaken place? The forest was dark, and the moon was hardly able to light the ground though the thick trees, even without all the leaves. She heard branches breaking as the four of them were moving. Yes, four of them. Two big and two small. She couldn’t oppress a smile when she realized she had, in fact, finally found them. Now all she had to do was follow them, and see what they were up to. When they walked to a rare ray of moonlight, she suddenly realized how little both of them had changed. She had seen them two years ago, but all that had changed was the age of the little ones. But yet, here they were, walking around again. Why hadn’t they stayed where they used to be? He wouldn’t accept them moving around like this, so in the open, even in a place like this. They were too precious to Him, as they were the only ones that knew Him. She knew that. She knew his reasons, including the reason why he couldn’t hurt them. Yet. But as she watched them walking, she couldn’t help but somewhere understand that everything soon would change. Suddenly seized by panic, she wanted to rush up to them and beg them to go back to where they came from. But it disappeared as soon as it came, and she was His again, on this world only to obey His command. So she followed them in the shadows, to find out their new purpose.