Author's Notes:

A little look at Zelshirska when no one is around, as you might expect she’s trying to keep her mind off her boredom.

Apologies in advance if you find this chapter uninteresting, but if you find the chapter boring then you have some idea of what Zelshirska is having to deal with. Granted, her boredom is on a level we mere mortals can barely come close to comprehending.

Zelshirska was at a strange place of a deity, she could exert her influence in a more pronounced way than before but was bored out of her skull, calling it boredom would be and cataclysmic understatement. It wasn’t often divine entities like her were bored to such an extent, they usually passed the time by playing games with each other that tended to involve the mortal world.

But that was the problem, her sisters were in no condition to play any games with her, and her one confirmed follower was in the middle of coordinating the erection, the dragon goddess giggled a bit at the choice of wording, of a community in Zelshirska’s honor. It had been ages since anything like that had happened, and never had she seen something on such an ambitious scale. Dragon’s weren’t known for building structures in their few communities they dwelled within, and the few ponies that once followed her edicts and teachings had only kept within small slices of existing communities.

This would be her first town actually dedicated primarily to her, and everything about it was something she genuinely approved of. A massive central bathing facility within spitting distance of the main temple, a temple that had its very architecture modeled after her insignia; there were also additional communal bathing facilities for the more prudish residents or visitors. Restraint was all good and reasonable, she respected any entity’s ability, and need, to show restraint, but that did not mean she approved of sexually repressing oneself for the sake of some misconceived notion of a moral high ground.

She admired the pony called Rarity; the white unicorn mare was willing to cater to the stylistic whims of others and not act too judgemental while being rather vocal about things she was passionate or disdainful towards. Things got a bit more amusing when Rarity’s own daughter, an eight-year-old, made a comment about wanting to be part of the new community Daring Do was working on putting together. Zelshirka knew that having at least one fashion minded resident would prove beneficial to the town, if not its immediate residents.

Zelshirska could feel herself fading in the thousand years the Crystal Heart was missing, and actually felt the pain of her heart literally shattering when an infant Flurry Heart did literally that. Time always had a different sort of flow for divine beings, but at the same time, they were aware of how time flowed in the mortal realm. For Zelshirska the feeling of disconnect while she tried to exert her influence with immensely diminished power over the decades was akin to a torture so great the brief time the Crystal Heart was shattered almost seemed dulled.

The restoration of her idol from an age long past was a bit of surprise, one she was more than willing to have a little fun with. The line Astra Showers descended from had one of her more amusing pony worshippers, a pegasus known as Thunder Scutum (at least that was what she was sure he was called. It had been a long time, and there were times where she had trouble remembering the names of her most faithful and/or more interesting followers), and as such made it possible for Zelshirska to watch over the young fillies she had, Star Log and Daring Do, almost at the moment of their conception.

Both young fillies, and later mares, were interesting to watch. In her early years Star Log had actually caught glimpses of Zelshirska and her realm but seemed to lose the connection as she grew older, but Daring was different far and away from her sister. For some reason, despite having a lack of open similarities to Zelshirska, her personal aura always resonated with Zelshirska’s energies, it was almost as if someone had written a destiny to link the two that the dragon goddess was mostly unaware of until the moment the idol was restored.

Daring had a dedication to her family and duties that was commendable. Daring dedicated her life to finding lost treasures, as well as clues to the whereabouts of her sister. Those two were close as could be in their younger days, even making plans that involved each other when it came to the future. Daring had very little in the way of social skills, which her chosen life path did almost nothing to improve.

Star Log and Daring Do were almost two halves of each other, or seemed to be at times. Star Log had been the more socially capable, but lacked the courage to try new things, and Daring Do was socially lacking while being more than brave enough to try new things and meet challenges. Star Log seemed to borrow some of her sister’s courage when she dragged said sister along to more social events. Daring made a show of not liking it, while keeping hidden smiles that her sister was being more outgoing.

Zelshirska got some enjoyment out of the antics of the siblings, of course, the same could true for Twilight and her elder brother. Zelshirska wouldn’t admit it, but she always got more enjoyment out of sibling interactions and couples than anything else. That all said, she was still very disappointed in the fillies (who were now mares) that thought it was a good idea to force a relationship with love poison (even if they had thought it was a love potion at the time).

Zelshirska was never approving of spells and concoctions that forced emotions or mental states, spells, and brews that brought such things to light were all perfectly acceptable, but those sorts of things that forced or overlayed feelings and/or mental states were something she found disdainful. In fact, thinking about such things left things tended to leave a bad taste in her mouth for an extended period.

At least thinking about all this stuff was distracting her from her bor… and it was back, with a vengeance. Zelshirska was so bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Making things so justice would fall into place for Daring was reaching too far into her sister’s domain, and the one thing deities were in agreement on was not encroaching on the domains of each other when the other can’t retaliate.

It looked like her boredom would keep droning on for some time, she wanted to have some fun. Without a broader follower base, Zelshirska wouldn’t be able to do very much. She wanted to find Star Log but for some reason said pony was beyond the range of her powers or ability to watch the mortal world. This frustrated Zelshirska to many ends, Star Log was just as viable an entity for her watch over as her sister. Whatever happened to Star Log, and wherever she was, there was something blocking her from being watched by a divine entity.

Maybe she could pique Twilight’s interest in the matter and have her look into it, if Zelshirska had an idea of what was blocking her she could figure out ways to circumvent them. The problem was the fact Twilight was now an alicorn, that particular kind of pony was more sensitive to outside forces influencing them. Maybe a little help from Spike and Daring was in order, the genesis of an idea popped into the dragon goddess’s head and she started getting to working on the plan.

Looks like she found something to alleviate some of her boredom, for a short time anyway. This would take some prep work, not that she minded. Daring was easy; she could just use her as a temporary vessel, there would probably be a bit more of an issue in convincing Spike to go along with it all. Then something hit her; she could just use Daring to lay it all on the line with Twilight, she’d been thinking about how to deal with ponies as if they were dragons. Their cultures were decidedly different, Zelshirska was so far out of the loop that she almost made a tactical error. Chances were she still was, but that was a risk she would just have to take.

She barely got to see anything pertaining to Shining Armor and Cadance dating, and even less when they were engaged in sexual intercourse. She literally didn’t know about Twilight Velvet and Night Light having sex until Shining Armor popped on down the line, she barely got any knowledge of the action that led to Twilight Sparkle. Point is, her connections had been flickering about for decades now, it was only after Daring inadvertently formed a more tangible bond with her that she was able to put all the pieces together.

She had felt she needed to influence Shining and Cadance’s relationship towards a lasting romantic one, but hadn’t genuinely understood why that notion was there until Daring had restored her idol. At first, she thought she was trying to keep herself occupied so as to not fall into some sort of slumber, but the truth was she felt she needed them together so that her former heart could be restored to some semblance of its glory. She needed the Crystal Heart to have new energies flowing into it; it was the only thing at the time keeping her from fading away.

Twilight Sparkle was a prodigy of magic and research, without Zelshirka’s interference, and her skills were now needed to help the dragon goddess. Daring needed closure on her sister, closure that Zelshirska couldn’t provide at the moment. With Twilight’s help maybe that could come closer to being rectified.