//------------------------------// // I: Out of the Forest, into a New World // Story: The Lioness and the Unicorn // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// “Pardon me, Master Star Swirl,” Clover spoke up, pulling the wagon of supplies behind her. “You still haven’t answered my question.” “What was it?” The gray unicorn turned his head away from the trail that cut through the forest of pine for just a moment. “Why are we setting out this early in the morning? I know you seem a bit excited, but care to share with me what is going on?” “Ah, my apologies,” the wizard continued on the rocky path through the mountains. “Tell me, my dear, did you see the storm that passed over us this morning?” “Besides the rain and thunder from outside of my tent, not much. Why?” The stallion pointed up at the sky to where the storm was, “Look carefully, do you notice anything odd about it?” Clover the Clever craned her neck upward above the pines and jagged mountains at the sky. Several miles away from where they were, she saw the large cloud that every so often explodes with lightning. Looking at it critically, the color of it in the early morning sun it didn’t seem that out of the ordinary. But when she lit up her horn to be more sensitive to the flow of magic around her, however… “Is it me, or is there some really strong magic coming from it?” Her teacher nodded, “Yes, that’s exactly why we’re moving out so early. I think judging by how the other clouds flow about, we might be able to catch up with it in time before noon. Now come along,” he started to trot, “I think we might be onto something interesting.” The mare tried to catch up with him as much as she could. Ever since the three pony tribes had made an alliance with each other with the promise of peace, Princess Platinum gave her permission to go out beyond the borders of the kingdom to document all knowledge in the world to her. That same Princess also thought it would be a good idea to have somepony to be with her to help document all the curiosities they would encounter to give detailed accounts of what they found. While the two unicorns found themselves on a perfectly straight trail, the younger lit up her horn to take out her journal and a piece of graphite from a pocket of her cloak. Day 87 (Morn) – Star Swirl has noticed a peculiar cloud of powerful magic this morning in the mountains of the Gryphon Kingdom. It is in a constant rage of lightning, thunder, and rain without any sign of stopping. The cloud is a darker shade than the others and it tumbles about so like rapids in troubled rivers. It could be a wild cloud that has been neglected by any help of Pegasi. For now, we are on the move to investigate. “Hurry along Clover,” Star Swirl called out, “We won’t catch up to it if you keep on writing everything down!” Putting the journal safely back in the cart, the mare quickens her pace to catch up with her teacher. The sky had a sense of foreboding as cold winds galloped past Star Swirl’s starry cloak and his cloud-like beard. Clover was shivering underneath her brown cloak while the mountainous trail drew them closer to the path of the storm. Pretty soon, they felt the patter of icy rain upon their clothing as they walked into a clearing. Right above them without any trees to block their view was a large, wild cloud. One that swirled and twisted in the wind, but this cloud’s color was intriguing because as lightning flashed from it, they saw that it was in a deep purple. Now on a hill with no trees in the way, both unicorns could see it up close as it continued on with its storm. “Master Star Swirl,” Clover began, “Why is this storm cloud like this? I’ve never sensed so much magic in a cloud before.” The gray unicorn peered through the rain that came down on his face. “I doubt it’s even a cloud at all.” “Why do you say that?” his student inquired. “It looks and moves like one.” “Remember Cleaver, looks can be deceiving. Clouds don’t need much magic but this one has much obviously.” He turned to her, “If it’s not a cloud, what do you suppose it could be?” The unicorn mare squints into the storm, “Perhaps… it’s a collection of magickal vapors that have been collected together over time?” “That is a possibility. But how do you suppose we test if it’s so?” “Scan it?” Clover asked when there was a crack of thunder overhead. “Very good,” he nodded. “But I purpose that we take only a small sample of these vapors so we may study it later. And since this thing is regurgitating lightning, we must do so gently. Otherwise, we may get strike ourselves.” “How do we do that?” “I assume that with our magic, we reach out to it and, as gently as possible, take hold a little bit of the vapor to be brought down and put into a jar. We don’t want to add too much magic of course; otherwise, it might cause a magical discharge between us and the cloud overhead. Bring the largest jar we can spare Clover, and let’s see what we can get from it.” The student did as she was told as she unhitched herself from the wagon and dug out a jar with a large croak at the mouth of it. After opening it up, she stood by Star Swirl, whose horn was already glowing, “Ready my student?” She lit hers as well, “Ready master.” “Now remember, gently,” he said as they fired a levitation spell towards the cloud. Of course, the mare did her best to follow her teacher’s instructions as much as possible. But given the distance where she had to stretch her magic tinny, she was forced to slowly increase her aura until it touched the cloud. But to her horror, she felt every single hair on her body standing straight up, tremendous energy was flowing through her before something sharp hit her. With a deafening boom, she blacked out. The first thing that Clover noticed was how cold and damp everything was. As her eyes forced themselves to open, they found the world around them was dark, save for the flashes of lightning overhead. When those precious moments of light helped illuminate where she was, something in the back of her mind was telling her that something was wrong. There was a severe lack of pine trees, which probably contribute as to why the grass was so soft from the lack of needles. There were oaks, maples and willow trees that encompassed the field of grass she was in as she lifted herself up from the ground. Clover lit her horn to cast a lilac glow to realize that this was not the same field as they were before. If anything, even the mountain range was gone too, and as she circled around, she even found, “Master!” On the ground not too far from where she was, Star Swirl was laying belly down on the wet grass as rain continued to pour on his cloak and hat. The unicorn mare rushed over to her teacher, using her forelegs to wake him, “Master, wake up!” “Not now,” he grumbled. “A few more minutes I beg you.” “Master, wake up! Our cart is gone!” This got the gray unicorn’s head to cane over the grass, “What!” For a moment he panicked as he looked about, but this quickly turned into confusion. “Clover? Where are we?” “How should I know? I just woke up myself, in fact, how long have we’ve been out for?” Star Swirl’s horn lit up brightly as he examined himself, “Well… One thing’s for sure, wherever we are; I don’t think we’ve been robbed because my bag of coins is still full under my hat. If we were ambushed we would have been tied up, but we’re not. We’ve just… moved.” For a long minute, the bearded unicorn looked straight up at the sky. “Clover, unless my memory if false, do you recall the last memory you have in which we were in a field, looking up at a mysterious cloud with lightning?” “I do master,” she nodded, “and we were going to put a piece of it in a jar, but I think we’ve might have been struck by it.” “Now that’s interesting… a cloud filled with magical vapors in which it can transport not just one but two ponies to an inertly different location.” “That’s quite an obvious master,” Clover pointed out, “but where in the world are we anyway?” “Good question…” he muttered as lightning quickly illuminated the mysterious land once again. This time, in the distance he caught sight of something that didn’t belong to the land. He started moving about but still kept his muzzle point in a specific direction. “Clover,” he finally spoke, “I think there might be some light over there.” “Where?” “Over there by that group of trees, do you see it?” he pointed a hoof over. “I think that the answer to where ever we are must be over there. Let’s go over to see if they might be of some help… and getting out of the rain too, I’m freezing out here.” Clover agreed and she followed behind the old sage towards the lights in which they grew the closer they approach. Through grass and around trees, it became clear that the lights were actually windows of a great building made completely out of brick. It was indeed huge, for it was the size of a village and several times as tall as they can make out a great number of chimneys. As they drew ever closer, to Clover, it almost looked like a red castle. All the while, their horns light their path towards the enormous building. Light of blue and purple didn’t go unnoticed by those who were guarding the palace. If anything, it was causing a great deal of alarm. Both ponies paused as they heard a trumpet being sounded. “What was that?” Star Swirl uneasily chuckled, “Maybe they have spotted us. They’ll be sending some guards to see who is coming. Don’t worry my dear, once we’ve explained everything then we’ll have a good idea where we are.” Before they know it, they heard the sound of hooves galloping towards their direction. Yet, what none of them expected to see there were strange shadows that were riding up to them. At first, neither unicorn could make out what was coming towards them, but all they know was that they were carrying lanterns and spears. “Clover,” Star Swirl turned his head towards her, “prepare any defense spells you have just in case.” She nodded while her master’s horn glowed brighter that helped illuminated their spot. As he did so, their eyes came upon a legion of equines that were usually tall. But making each of them be bewildered was what was riding on their backs. They were in some sort of red uniform with flat, black hats with white feathers in them. On each of their uniforms, a symbol was sewn on in the shape of a rose that had red and white petals. As the horses encompassed the two unicorns, the creatures shine a light with a lantern in one foreleg covered in blue cloth while pointing spear at them with the other. But what strike both of the ponies were the faces of these strange guards. They were flat, round, had the color of a peach with trimmed beards around their mouths. “Good Lord,” one of the guards spoke. “Are my eyes deceiving me?” “Unicorns,” said another, “on the Queen’s grounds.” At this point, Star Swirl stepped forward, “Yes, hello, my name is-” before he could finish what he was going to say, he found a dozen spears that were mere inches from his face. “It speaks!” one of the guards shouted. “The creature spoke!” The bearded unicorn took several steps back but the circle of pointy spears came closer to them. “Wait, listen to me!” One of the guards hopped off the back of one of the horses but still kept his spear pointed at them. Unlike the others, he had an extra symbol of a crown above the red and white rose. “Are you an angel or a demon?” “N-Neither, sir,” Clover spoke up. “We mean no harm. We’re lost, hungry, and cold from the rain. Please, we don’t know where we are and we saw a light. Could you please take us inside just to get out of this rain?” The guard with the crown on his uniform stepped closer, “If you creatures can speak, do you also have names too?” “Ah yes,” the gray unicorn began, “I am Star Swirl the Bearded, and this is my student, Clover the Clever. She’s quite right; we honestly don’t know where we are.” “You’re on the royal hunting grounds – or to be more precise, on the grounds of Hampton Court.” Star Swirl tilted his head, “I’m afraid that I do not exactly know the name.” “Nevertheless,” the head guard said, “the two of you shall come with us, to see what Her Majesty the Queen will do with you.” Clover glanced over at her teacher, exchanging an unsettling look. “Bring them in lads,” he added as he mounted his horse, “I’m sure she would be interested in seeing real unicorns.”