The Graduates
“In the many a years I have spent educating and molding the minds of this tribe’s most studious of young spellcasters, I find that each new generation holds new surprises and talents that astonish me to this very day.”
The crowd of Unicorns sat still, attentively listening to Dr. Charm Caster’s speech. The many graduates of the Royal Unicorn Magic University proudly lined the front of the crowd, their brilliant white and blue gowns shimmering in the midmorning sunlight. The occasional bobbing or shifting of the caps was becoming all the more frequent, suggesting the students’ awareness that the ceremony was at a close, and soon they would be graduate spellcasters from the most highly distinguished magical university in the land. The shuffle of hooves and sniffs of proud parents were dispersed throughout the audience and out into the vast open field in front of the campus’ main doors.
“…which are both as encouraging as they are delightful,” Dr. Caster continued. “But among these bright minds are those who shine ever brighter; it is on this day that we acknowledge the determination and talents of your truly remarkable peers.”
Dr. Caster took a glance behind him from the podium at the small collection of graduates sitting on the stage, donned in extra gold and silver ribbon. The seven of them sat poised and proper, moving only to nod their heads in the acknowledgement of his compliment. Dr. Caster turned back to the audience as the two Unicorns in the front of the distinguished section shared a quick grin.
“And to congratulate these fine young mares and stallions, it is my honor to have councilpony Shine Bright of the Royal High Council, who will be awarding these young ones.”
An elderly mare with a dull yellow coat stood up from the other side on the stage where other members of the school’s faculty sat. Unlike the rest of the faculty, she wore a dark black cloak, embroidered with the bright purple seal of the Unicorn King. She briskly trotted up to the front of the stage, ignoring the subtle groan echoing in the crowd of graduates, and she bowed her head to greet Dr. Caster.
Shine Bright only showed up to the school on occasion and when she did, it was only to hold a lengthy lecture about their future prospects in serving either in the Royal Military or joining one of the several magical research departments, or some other subject the students had found less than entertaining. Not only that, she had a habit of tracking students she found most valuable and forcing herself upon them to take harder classes, do better work, and basically find ways of annoying them at all hours of the day. Usually her advances paid off with the most studious and serious of students, but unfortunately she had her eye on a rather troublesome pair of brothers.
“Thank you Dr. Caster,” Shine said, levitating a stack of diplomas towards her. “As I look around I see the faces of many promising adult spellcasters…”
“Adults?” a voice whispered from the group of distinguished graduates. “I guess she doesn’t know who’s in our class this year.”
The comment earned a slight chuckle from four of the other Unicorns sitting around him. With a sly smile, he leaned forward in between the two Unicorns who were seated just in front of him.
“I’m sorry little colts. I guess she forgot you were here,” he said mockingly.
The Unicorn on the right leaned his head back, careful not to disturb his trimmed, sea-blue mane, turning it ever so slightly so that his deep set golden eyes were able to make contact with the other Unicorn’s.
“Is that jealousy I hear, Crown?” the young Unicorn joked back before returning his eyes to Shine’s speech. “Upset that two fifteen year olds got the better of you Mr. Almost Class President AND Valedictorian?”
Crown huffed, narrowing his eyes and said, “Why don’t you stuff a hay barrel in your muzzle, Starswirl?”
“If we’ve got a few days for you to figure out a summoning spell I’d love to see you try,” Starswirl shot back.
“How about you grow another few hooves and say that to my face,” Crown shot back angrily.
“How about,” the darker Unicorn on the left interrupted before his brother could come up with another retort. “You both be quiet and listen for a bit?”
Starswirl shifted his eyes at his brother giving him his classic ‘you-are-ruining-my-fun’ glance only to be returned by his brother’s ‘stop-acting-like-such-a-baby-in-public’ counter stare. Starswirl rolled his eyes and grudgingly put his attention back on the ceremony. However, Crown had only become more aggravated and sharply turned his head so that he was directly in the brother’s line of sight.
“Excuse me, but I think you are the last one here who has any right to talk, markless,” Crown said.
“…with all the resources available to these young ones, they have truly gone beyond what was expected of these University students,” Shine continued, cutting a break in the argument.
The brother glared at Crown before turning his head from him. Crown grinned in a self-satisfied smirk as he leaned back into his seat. Starswirl looked over to his brother, watching his tail flick instinctively over his bare flank before returning uncomfortably to his side. Starswirl gave him a concerned glance, which he purposefully ignored. Starswirl turned from his brother and sighed sadly. A moment later, his darkened demeanor was replaced with a wicked smile as he lit his horn up to magically straighten a “crease” in his gown.
“So without further ado, I would like to personally recognize this year’s top graduates,” Shine concluded.
With that, the seven Unicorns on stage stood and approached Shine Bright at the podium. They formed a line just to the side of her as they had rehearsed before with Starswirl and his brother leading, followed by Crown and the rest of the student government. Shine looked to the line and her determined smile faltered only slightly. As much as she loved her job, there were always the students that gave her trouble, and the two leading the line were among the worst. If it wasn’t Starswirl’s numerous pranks and out of control experiments then it was his brother’s scuffles in the hallways or his dangerous experiments. She let out a quick huff before returning to her professional composure.
“It is my honor to present this official diploma to Starswirl, this year’s class valedictorian and this university’s 2nd youngest graduate in history.”
Hooves clapped together as Starswirl approached Shine Bright. He bowed his head before coming up and taking his diploma, shaking hooves with the councilpony. She smiled warmly at him, which he returned in earnest. She turned back to the podium just as Starswirl crossed behind her, unaware of the golden aura slowly building around his horn.
“And in this university’s first, I would like to present this diploma to this year’s other valedictorian and this university’s youngest graduate in history…”
Shine paused, eyes locked to the sky above them. Several murmurs ran through the crowd as they wondered what had caused her to stop her presentation. Several audience members followed her gaze into the sky. Floating gently down from the top of the university building were dozens of large bubbles. They were each about a meter in diameter and were tinted slightly blue. The oddest thing about them was that they seemed to hold an almost perfectly spherical shape as they floated nearer and nearer to the audience.
The first one down began falling on top of the student section. It floated slowly in front of them until one student approached it. He stuck his hoof out expecting to pop it, but it did not burst. Instead, the bubble began to quickly draw the young Unicorn inside it. He was only able to yelp before being sucked completely into the bubble, becoming trapped inside. A loud gasp rippled through the audience as the Unicorn was sucked inside. He tried to push on the bubble, but it stretched and bent, keeping his entire body curled awkwardly inside.
Chaos ensued as more of the bubbles rained down upon the crowd, sucking up anypony that they came in contact with. Soon chairs and benches were being tossed as ponies scrambled to get out of the way of the oncoming bubbles as the faculty tried to restore order. Shine was struck at loss for words, unable to comprehend what was happening. She looked down of the line graduates beside her, most of which were as confused as she was, except for the one in front whose eyes were locked on a figure behind her.
Starswirl was rolling on the ground in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Tears were forming at the end of his eyes from watching the success of his prank. He only calmed down when he noticed the burning glares of his brother and a confused and upset yellow mare above him.
“Starswirl?” Shine asked before becoming furious. “STARSWIRL!”
Deciding not to tempt his luck any farther, he snatched his diploma up with his magic and took off across the stage past his brother. On his exit, he bumped Crown in his side, making him stagger sideways into one of the many bubbles flooding the ceremony. With a surprised scream, Crown found himself trapped inside unable to get free. He tried using his magic to blast his way out, only to find that his magic seemed to have no effect on the bubble.
“Starswirl!” he shouted though his voice was muffled by the bubble and the shouting of the rest of the ponies in attendance. “You get back here and let me out right now!”
His brother found himself stifling a chuckle as Crown angrily tried to break free of his prison that was slowly floating away from the stage. He turned his head only to come snout to snout with a very angry looking yellow Unicorn.
“Wow Ms. Bright, great speech, really moving, but…” he said before quickly snatching the still levitating diploma she had with his mouth and making a quick dash for the edge of the stage.
Shine Bright stood there at an absolute loss as the two young colts dashed off the stage. She was only brought back to reality when she noticed that one of the bubbles had gotten a little too close to her.
“Get away,” she said using her magic to push the bubble away from her before turning to shout at the escaping culprits. “You two get back here! STARSWIRL! ECLIPSE!”
The two young colts burst through the wooden door, skidding and sliding unceremoniously to a stop. One quickly tumbled over the mat near the entrance, slamming the door shut and securely locking it behind him before dropping to the ground exhausted. The other stood just a few hooves away, panting heavily and dripping with sweat from the nearly mile sprint the brothers had just endured.
Eclipse looked up from his panting and shot an angry look at his brother who leaned his head from off the door towards him. Starswirl nervously made eye contact with him, fully aware that Eclipse was probably quite upset with him. To his surprise, after a moment of heated looks, Eclipse’s mouth widened into a smile and he began to chuckle tiredly. Starswirl’s own grin appeared and he joined him. Soon the two brothers were laughing quite loudly as they sat exhausted and drained from the day’s events. The two enjoyed a good laugh for a few minutes before calming down enough for Starswirl to raise himself from the doorway. Eclipse shook his head as Starswirl passed him.
“You are thick in the head, you know that right?” Eclipse teased.
“Oh come off it, you know it was funny,” Starswirl said back, magically taking off his cap and gown and hanging them from the chair that was sitting in the small backroom of their house they had entered through.
Eclipse followed him, hanging his things next to him before following him out adding, “How did you even…no, wait…don’t tell me…moldable strength spell on soap water with…an entrapment charm?”
Starswirl stopped before turning a coy glance at his brother, “You know me better than that.”
Eclipse thought for a moment as he and his brother entered their living room. Starswirl sprawled himself down on the couch and began to pour himself a glass of water from the kitchen on the other end of the room.
“Crown couldn’t use magic to pop them,” Eclipse said still in thought. “And magic can’t…” Eclipse stopped turning towards his brother whose coy grin had turned into a giddy, full out broad smile. “You didn’t, did you?”
“They were blue,” said Starswirl reading his brother’s train of thought.
Eclipse plopped down on the couch opposite Starswirl and said, “You stole some of Professor Graph’s dragon scale dust? Wha…why?”
Starswirl sat up, proudly facing Eclipse. He levitated his cup of water to his side and offered another cup to Eclipse, who grudgingly accepted it, catching it in his own purple aura and taking a sip.
“Firstly, I didn’t steal it. I was doing some experiments with it for the Professor,” Starswirl began before catching his brother’s questioning stare. “Ok, maybe I told him I used more than I did, but that’s beside the point. Secondly, I wanted to see if the dragon scale would be a stronger additive in liquid form than a simple trap spell. And thirdly, how long do you think it will take for them to realize what those bubble are made out of?”
Eclipse stared in awe at his brother before throwing his hooves up in the air in utter defeat. Of the two of them, Starswirl had always been the more rambunctious and free-willed soul. His exploits at school would land him into trouble more times than either could count, much less keep track of. And of course, whenever Starswirl got into trouble, Eclipse was never too far behind, dragged into the problem at the worst possible time and never when he was expecting or prepared to deal with them. Eclipse furiously rubbed his hooves on his face, trying to soothe the oncoming headache he knew was coming whenever it came to dealing with the aftermath of one of his brother’s practical jokes. Starswirl, grinning proudly in his “victory” hopped off the couch and headed upstairs to his room.
Their house wasn’t small by any standards, but it was a little small for the family of Unicorns living in it now. The university dormitories were not designed to house more than two or three young students per year. However, special considerations had to be made when Starswirl and Eclipse were accepted into the Unicorn tribe’s most distinguished university at the age of fifteen. Too young to live on their own, they and their family made the long move to stay in one of the larger dorm rooms, renovated to accommodate the family. The school believed they would be there for the average four to six years, however now at age seventeen; the family was looking to move again.
Eclipse pulled his hooves off his face and turned to watch Starswirl club the step to the second floor. The entire dorm itself was pretty much a large open space with rooms pegged on its side. The doorway opened straight to the main sitting room where a few couches, chairs, and tables were set up. The kitchen was further back and their parents’ room was located off to the right. The second floor wasn’t really a floor itself as much as it was a landing. A single curved staircase lead up the side of the room to two ledges sunk into the wall while still jutting out over the sitting room.
On the left was Starswirl’s room, just above the kitchen. It was very simple, just a bed, a desk, and a table with a lantern and several magical items on it. Oh and scrolls. LOTS of scrolls. He had converted his wall into a giant scroll shelf that stretched around his room, containing any magic scroll he could get his hooves on. Half unrolled scrolls and empty holders of spells that Starswirl was either trying to master or experiment with were strewn about anywhere there wasn’t furniture in the way. Above his bed he had carved his cutie mark the day he got it.
On the right was Eclipse’s room, which was in stark contrast to his brother’s room. For one, it was clean. No mountain of scrolls covering his bed and, as much has he loathed, no cutie mark engraving anywhere. Eclipse had gotten one of the few windows in the house, but it was draped over with a curtain, making the room dark even on the sunniest of days. However, what set his room apart so drastically was the random assortment of strange items that were sitting on his desk, hanging from the ceiling, or arranged neatly on the floor. While his brother developed a taste for reckless albeit interesting testing and experimentation methods for spells and charms, Eclipse had found a fascination in objects with magical powers. The little tchotchkes that littered his room were capable of doing a variety of things from simply changing color when the right magic was pushed through it to complex lock puzzles that seemed to work on no magic at all. Something about these charmed gizmos intrigued him and had given him much notoriety in the university with curious professors. Eclipse looked up at his brother, who was busy pulling out and examining a few of his scrolls.
“Dr. Caster is not going to let us on this trip anymore,” Eclipse said.
“Ha, are you kidding?” Starswirl responded rolling up the scrolls and placing them by his bed. “Did you see him laughing? You know the headmaster loves my magic.”
“Of course Dr. Caster likes your magic,” Eclipse said, rolling onto his back. “You both share that same strange obsession with reckless magical experimentation, and I’m going to be spending a month with the both of you in a frozen wasteland while you discuss the intricacies of magic theory…tell me again why I agreed to this excursion?”
“Firstly, I wasn’t the one who turned off gravity in the music wing because I was messing around with some weird orb in class,” Starswirl said, waiting to hear his brother huff before continuing. “Secondly, Headmaster Caster is one of the most recognized spellcasters in the entire tribe. To be asked to go on a research trip with university graduates by not only the Headmaster but a Grandmaster himself, at our age, is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one I will not let you pass up on.”
“A Grandmaster, huh?” Eclipse said.
“Yes, he’s very powerful. Or don’t you remember the ranks?” Starswirl teased.
“…don’t” Eclipse warned.
“We could always jog your memory.”
“I swear…”
“There’s a catchy song.”
“…to the most powerful Alicorns that can hear my voice…”
“How did it go again?”
“…I’ll skin you alive.”
“Ohhhhhh, N is the-“
Two bright purple rings appeared around Starswirl’s snout, snapping it shut before he could utter another word.
“By the Gods, I know already! Novice, Apprentice, Spellcaster, Arcane, Senior, Sage, Magus, Master, Grandmaster, Archmage! Gods help me if I have to go through that one more time! The drill sergeant is enough. I really don’t need it from you,” Eclipse fumed.
Starswirl wedged his magic between his brother’s, snapping the rings that help his mouth closed. He trotted over to the ledge of his room that hung out over where Eclipse was now on his hooves pacing.
“Speaking of,” Starswirl continued. “Doesn’t the military require a certain number of in field hours before boot camp?”
Eclipse only huffed again as he rolled his eyes at his brother and sat back down on the couch. He could never admit openly his brother was right about anything less it shamed him, but the recruiting officer was very specific. Unless he got a large number of field hours in before the end of the summer, he wouldn’t be allowed to register for the year’s training. Eclipse had wanted to go into military service for a long time now, not out of any sense of duty to his tribe, but it was the only practical use of magic he could see, unlike his brother’s dreams of working in a lab every day for the rest of his life.
Eclipse shivered at the thought before directing back at Starswirl, “Why are we going to the Crystal Mountains anyway? There’s nothing there but rocks, snow, cold wind, more rocks, and surprisingly very few crystals.”
“Because,” Starswirl said. “The Crystal Mountains emit a magical aura unlike anywhere else in the world. Their magical signature is in a constant state of flux, the strange rays of light that seem to wrap themselves around the mountains at night are a complete mystery, the flora and fauna living there develop amazing magical abilities and bizarre characteristics, and magic goes haywire the deeper or higher you go which is why only Earth-Ponies can mine the crystals that are in the mountain and you’re not even listening to me are you?”
Starswirl suddenly shot a serious look down to his brother when he realized that Eclipse had begun levitating a pillow in front of his face and studying it with intense focus.
“Nnope,” Eclipse replied flippantly. “Tuned out after I heard something about ‘Oh, my brother Eclipse is so amazing and better than me at magic and I’m so jealous cause I’m a huge nerd and-”
A large leather sack found its way on Eclipse’s face as he was doing his best imitation of his brother. Eclipse pulled it off of him and realized it was one of his travel bags. He looked up as Starswirl threw the second one at his head.
“Just start packing you big dolt. We’re leaving in four days,” Starswirl laughed as he went back to grabbing more scrolls.
“Ugh, fine,” Eclipse replied heading towards the stairs, levitating his bags up to his room.
A loud crash shocked them both and they whipped around to the source of the noise. In the doorway stood an out of breath, out of patience, and very upset Unicorn mare.
“STARSWIRL AND ECLIPSE, YOU GET YOUR FLANKS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!”
“…yes mom.”
From the desk of: Starswirl the Bearded
Date: August 16th, 4 C.E. (Current Equestria)
Journal Stamp: #410b.
It was called Vallis Pace, The Valley of Peace, and it was truly beautiful. Seasons bloomed in full force with harsh, yet serene winters, colorful and sunny springs, hot and enjoyable summers, and vibrant, cool falls; lush, rolling fields of tall grass that extended far, like the sea, and waved as so when the wind swept across it on a cool midsummer’s day. Thick forests, shrouded in mystery and adventure with powerfully old trees wound their way through, around, and in between the lands of the three tribes. Towering mountain hills that reached up past the clouds, puncturing even the highest Pegasi city, surrounded us all in a majestic arc leading to its peak at the awe inspiring Crystal Mountains. It was a wonderful place to live.
I suppose, looking back, this mess began with our little excursion to the Crystal Mountains. Funny…those few days should be an ancient memory in the minds of most who have lived to my age, yet I can never bring myself to forget that experience. I may have only guessed it at the time, but Eclipse and I were destined for greatness. It followed us everywhere we went and we knew it was only a matter of time before it revealed itself to us. And though I was too young at the time to realize it, the genesis of that greatness started with that little cave in the mountains.
The Crystal Mountains were a dangerous and unknown place. Even after the exodus of the tribes from Vallis Pace through them, they remain a danger. Creatures unlike any ever seen live in those mountains, fueled by magic unknown to most and dangerous therefore. It is cold and desolate, but that never seemed to stop ponies from going there. We do have a rather bold taste for the mysterious. Our team’s goal for that trip was supposed to be a simple research expedition, but what Eclipse and I found in those mountains would set the stage for the struggle the tragedy what was to come.