Chapter 18: Princess and Prisoner

214 7 4
                                    

Canterlot Castle

Nova

The will of Nightmare Moon is paramount.

Nova remained still as she studied the chalkboard in front of her, scarlet eyes narrowed in concentration. Surrounding her was an array of organized research materials and equipment that had been recently delivered to the castle at her demand. Freshly made quills, brand new parchment, and books hot off the printing press were being steadily organized into their new home in Novas's quarters. These walls had formerly been the home of the castle's resident court wizard...but he had made other accommodations at Nova's suggestion.

The dragon who had belonged to Nova's previous self, 'She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named', was currently organizing the new laboratory equipment and research material that she had commandeered. He worked as silently as possible, so as to not incur her wrath. The new bandages covering his head and arms were a testament to how much of a bad idea it was to interrupt Nova when she was in the midst of her projects.

Nova did enjoy reminding lesser beings of their inferiority, often, and with liberally applied lightning.

Turning back to her work, Nova turned returned her thoughts to the projects, ideas, conspiracies, and theories she had accumulated in her study; at the end of the night all of Nova's work could be summed up into three issues that demanded her absolute attention.

Her empress, Nightmare Moon, had assured her that Nova had done enough for the empire, and that she deserved to relax and revel in the midst of the empress's success.

Nova, however, knew better.

As blasphemous as that sounded, Nova had come to realize that her empress possessed a flaw. Nightmare Moon possessed a sentiment for the ideal of motherhood. This construct was the first of the three projects that Nova was working on.

Unfortunately, she had not come closer to finding a final solution. The obvious answer was that motherhood was a societal tool used to continue the mortal species and allow young offspring to grow to a self-sustaining age.

Nova did not know why Nightmare Moon insisted on placing her into this category.

She was not blind, or deaf for that matter. Nova knew very well that she shared a biological maternal link with the empress. However, such mortal connections, and the sentiment that was attached to them, were best left to the mortals themselves and their short-sighted mindsets. As immortal alicorns that were bound to physical aspects of the universe, the idea of relationships through the commonality of shared blood was absurd.

It was apparent that Nightmare Moon shared Nova's belief in this, at least to a certain degree. The empress had, after all, overthrown her treacherous sister. From a biological standpoint, siblings would be closer in blood than a parent and her child. The child, after all, would also share blood with the other parent, and would therefore only possess half the blood relation to either parent, unlike siblings, who were of the same blood.

Following this logic, Nightmare Moon should hold no sentiment for Nova if Celestia did not matter.

Nightmare Moon was therefore illogical.

...

...

...

"Dragon." Nova said decisively, keeping her eyes firmly on her charts. "Come here."

The small purple dragon hesitated for a moment then shuffled to her side. "Yes ma'am?"

"I need an illogical opinion. You are an expert in being illogical, therefore I will grant you this opportunity to speak freely so long as you do not insult either the empress or myself."

Heir of the NightmareWhere stories live. Discover now