Daryia and Matoe

Crystal and Twinkle Star followed Daryia through a long hallway lit by candlelight. There were various doors on both sides, but they ignored all of them for now. Twinkle Star suspected the personal chambers of the family were behind these doors, or maybe there were important archives there? At the end of the hallway was yet another door, which Daryia opened. Daylight entered the hallway, and soon they were in a room which only had glass walls on the opposite side of the room. The room was light and rather beautiful, there were large couches, a huge dark wooden table, some book closets, but overall there was a lot of space. On the floor were marble stones, and through the large windows there was a great view over the gardens and the dunes. The gardens on this side of the castle were probably even more beautiful than the ones on the front side. These were only for the royal family, and it was clear a lot of effort was put in them to make them look pretty.

In the garden Twinkle Star saw a pony working with some flowers. A male pony, no doubt, and he didn’t look too young.
“That’s my husband, Matoe. Will you wait a second, I will get him inside.” Daryia confirmed Twinkle star’s suspicions. Daryia opened one of the glass panels which apparently was a door, and walked outside, towards her husband.
“Interesting palace, isn’t it? It’s so different from ours.” Crystal observed. Twinkle Star couldn’t help but agreeing.
“Very true, Crystal. It’s hardly a royal house at all, in my eyes. It’s beautiful and rich, but it just doesn’t give me the feeling a strong royal family lives here. Even the Kin castle did that with me, and mother said that family was weaker than the family of Madash.”
“Yes, but you have to remember in most countries, ponies live in a castle and the entire royal family lives in one place. Here, there is no castle and the family lives scattered along the people. It’s quite a difference, but I don’t think it’s something that has made them weaker.” Crystal responded.
“Very true, very true.” Twinkle Star said, while she looked outside where Daryia was now talking with her husband. Only a second later she turned around and walked back to the room she and Crystal were in, and Matoe was following her.

Twinkle Star’s heart began to beat faster. Matoe… he was, after all, Anrui’s brother. That’s all she ever really knew about him, and yet he was her mother’s cousin. If nothing had ever changed, maybe they would have been much closer by now. But the world had changed, and she had never even met her uncle before. But now that she saw him, she couldn’t help but to think he looked extremely familiar. What’s more, he felt familiar. Twinkle star noticed he looked a lot like her mother, only in male form. His dark pink coat was of almost the same color, as was the golden streak in his mane. The only difference was that the main part of his mane were turquoise, while her mother’s were shining pink. He also looked older than her mother, of course, as he was nearly ten years older. But Twinkle Star was sure she would have recognised him as one of her family, even if she hadn’t known who he was.

When Daryia and Matoe had entered the room, Daryia closed the glass door behind her.
“Twinkle Star, Crystal,” she said, after she had turned back to the two sisters, “May I introduce you to my husband, Matoe of the Friendship Lands and of the beach country of Madash. Matoe, these are Princess Twinkle Star of the Friendship Lands and princess Crystal of the Friendship Lands.” It was a formal introduction, and Twinkle Star was glad that it was over. Somehow, if felt rather uneasy to being introduced to formal to your own family. Matoe slowly bowed his head a bit.
“It is a pleasure to meet both of you, princesses.” He said.
Twinkle Star and Crystal, in their turn, also lowered their heads.
“The pleasure is ours.” Twinkle Star said, and they all rose again. Twinkle Star was relieved to see Matoe had lost his formal face, and he was smiling at them.

“I am gland, and honoured, to finally meet the children of my little cousin. I have heard of you, of course, but I never had a chance to come back to my home before… it was too late. My heart has always been with you, and your mother, when I heard she had founded a new country up north. But her request was to be left alone, in peace, so we never even dared to ask for a visit. But now you two come and visit us. It’s been so long since I had last met ponies of my family.” He told them, and Twinkle Star heard the honesty in his voice.
Daryia, too, was smiling now. She had probably known life had been hard on her husband, so far away from his family. Yet, of course, he had founded his own family here, so he had been able to go on.
“It is a great pleasure to us, too. We only met our mother after fifteen years this spring, and so much has happened since then. We met not only our mother, and our younger sisters and Stelline, our oldest sister, but we also met two aunts of ours, Damina and Regala, and three of their children. In fact, we are here on behalf of one of them, Togli, daughter of Regala, who is married now to Stanno, the heir to the throne of the country of Kin.”
When Matoe looked at her with a questioning face, she continued.
“When we were visiting Kin, now over a month ago, we found out Togli had lost all her memories two years ago, after she had been separated from hr mother in a visit to the old lands. My sister Stelline, who as you might know is a unicorn, has found out her memories aren’t lost, but sealed away. As we know of the history of your country, and the experience you have with mind seals, we are here to find information to help our sister. But now the Queen has told us, this is not the first strange event here these past few months.”

Matoe slowly nodded. “That is all very concerning news you bring, indeed. And you are right. I feel, more than I know it, that something is going on in this world, something clouded from us, but if we do not uncover it swiftly, I fear it may affect us all. I have given this a lot of thought recently, and I can not shake off the feeling someone is trying to secretly find out more about this mind seal, and I fear not for good purposes. But why, and who, I do not know.”
Twinkle star heard Daryia sigh, and Twinkle Star looked at her. “What is it, my queen?” She asked.
“This mind seal… it is all very troublesome. I am one of the last few who has been thought the ways to repel a curse. In the past, we taught every female of the country this art, but in time, ponies became less motivated, for there was no real reason to fight it anymore. Now, only the woman of the royal house are being thought the secret ways, but at the moment, that is only me and my daughter. And even we cannot destroy a mind seal once it is placed. Once one is placed, a mind seal can only disappear when the creator’s mind has been destroyed. If you try to remove the seal on your own, you might kill the person in the process.”

A small silence fell, and Twinkle Star didn’t know how to respond. This was not what she had been wanting to hear at all. She had come here to find a way to destroy the mind seal that held Togli’s mind captive. But if the only way to do that was to destroy the one who gave her the seal… She didn’t even know who that was! The only one who could know it was the only one who could not remember. Twinkle Star began to lose her strength and hope. Did they come here for nothing? Was there no way they could help Togli, at all? Somehow, the entire journey, she had counted on finding a way to help her. The thought of failing had barely crossed her mind. Yet, here they were, hearing that which was the one thing she didn’t want to hear. But… was there not something more going on? Daryia had only just told her someone was trying to see the old books about the mind seal. Was someone trying to discover it’s secrets?

“A mind seal is a dangerous thing.” Daryia suddenly stated. Twinkle star noticed she had turned her back on them, and was staring out of the window now.
“What do you mean, my lady?” Crystal asked before Twinkle star could respond.
“It is almost forgotten now, Crystal. I must say, I was rather surprised to hear your mother remembered our knowledge. It has been so long since someone was last confronted with it, and yet I always knew that one day someone would rise again with powers like it. My mother knew it, and hers. But the ponies in the country have forgotten it, they see it as a nice story to tell children to scare them. But a mind seal… when done right, you can forget everything, who you are, why you are, and they can even give you new memories. Someone can make you do whatever you want. This Togli you talk about… I am surprised she was able to live on, to see only a part of her mind has been sealed away. It is not a really strong mind seal, then. Maybe we are correct, and is someone trying to learn how to perform them, and was she his or her first attempt. Yet I fail to see why someone would want to do such a thing.” Daryia sounded so concerned, it made Twinkle Star feel afraid, too. Was this really such bad news she brought? What was going on in this world, that she had no idea of?
“Daryia, dear… let’s not worry to much about it right now. We have guests. We shall see they can have permission to study the old books about the seal. That is all we can do for now. We need to discuss with the council first, before we are even able to take other actions. Should we not take care of our guests, first? They have travelled a long way. They deserve some comfort.” Matoe said, and he gave his wife a little hug. Daryia smiled at him, and then turned at Twinkle Star and Crystal.

“My husband is right. You both can use the rest of the day to relax here, and to get some rest. Tomorrow, we will take you to another castle down south. Some more family members live there, but our private library is there, too, and we secretly moved some other books there, too. That castle is well protected, with both ancient magic as new, but also with guards. You will both be safe there to do your research. But for now, please sit down. I will ask for some drinks and some food, and we can talk a bit about happier things. How is that?” Daryia said, and she pointed at the couches.
“That sounds wonderful, my lady. We are very grateful for your hospitality.” Crystal answered, and they all walked to the couches and sat down.

“So, tell me, how are the new Friendship Lands?” Matoe asked.
“I never heard much of them. I know Regina build the country with the help of the Tokowa lands, but other than that, I do now know.”
“Well… it’s really small, of course. We only have a small castle, for when they settled there, my mother only had 2 family members left, my two youngest sisters Ivy and Fleur. The country itself is small, too, but it’s growing every year. Every survivor of the eruption is welcome there, and we had a fair amount of other ponies settling in our country too, trying to build a new life on their own. We don’t have any big cities, or even towns, and the castle is in a remote spot, the nearest home is more than 30 minutes walking away. But it’s nice and calm, and for everyone living there… exactly what we need. A place to rest, to live without worry. I guess that’s what my mother intended to build, and she succeeded. She has never used the powers and strength granted to her for being born in such a strong country. She simply build a new country, from scratch, without using anything from the past. I think that’s the strength of the New Friendship Lands. They’re not a small reflection of the past, but the beginnings of a new kingdom.”
Twinkle Star’s words simply fell out of her, and only when she said it she realised how proud she actually was f her mother, for accomplishing this. Regina could simply have used the respect of others to rebuild the old lands, but instead she did it all on her own.

“It sounds wonderful, Twinkle Star. Maybe, one day, I will come to visit your beautiful little country. I would like to see Regina again, and her family. I am sure our daughter Lenna would love it, too. She has always been interested in my side of the family, too. In fact, she will be glad to meet you two, as she is in the southern castle too.” Matoe said to her.
“That would be awesome, Matoe.” Twinkle Star responded, and she truly did like it, because she was sure her mother would be happy to finally meet her cousin and her nieces again.