Stellaura gulped, a cold sweat on her brow as Elinora looked from one twin to another. The queen's mouth moved very little, almost as if not to disturb her grim expression.
Stellaura didn't want to believe a single word her sister said.
'There is a hostile jinn on the loose in a village not far from here...'
That was fine, it was nothing Elinora could not solve.
'...and We believe the both of you are old enough to handle this sort of thing, thus you will join Us.'
Hasad gasped. "It would be an honor, Elder Sister; We volunteer Our magics in this effort."
Another gulp later, Stellaura felt her eyes tearing up. Her brother would be on her side, of course. He knew about her fears. Her every nerve was screaming back at her.
Elinora turned and exited the tower balcony that overlooked a tranquil tiled courtyard complete with bubbling fountains. Stellaura swore they were laughing at her. She knew they were, how did the others miss it?
"Do not be late!" Elinora called.
There was a third gulp and Stellaura turned to face Hasad. "What am I to do? Nora expects me to -"
"Our elder sister expects you to perform your duty, just like We do."
"But-"
Hasad frowned and rolled his eyes, silently unfolding his colossal wings. The next moment, he was gone.
He wasn't on her side...
Stellaura wrapped her forehooves around the balcony and tried not to shiver, despite the warm climate. She never left the castle these days, and that was for the better. She couldn't tell anypony of her anxieties, or of the things they made her see. Ponies didn't understand anymore. Nora didn't understand, and just kept giving her talks about determination and trying hard and things for foals and they never worked.
Now Hasad had forsaken her, hadn't he?
Ever since she was small, Stellaura had been extra sensitive to the flow of unusual magic. No equine, Alicorn or not was able to fully read aura, detect spells, or anything of the sort but Stellaura came very close to doing so, and a fain static was always brushing against her nerves, and it pained her. Anytime she was near a pony with a particularly strange talent, a haunted building, or any sort of curse she became mildly ill or on edge. Magic that was meant to harm made her feel anxious if it was strong enough - not something that happened often because mortal magic users were not 'strong' by the standards of her illness, and really only a weak, dizzy pulse at best.
Magic made her sick, and for an Alicorn, that was heartbreaking. Pegasai did not get ill because they flew, and yet Stellaura was sickly because of a condition that she should not have, but had grown into anyway.
Yes, the princess had always been a rather jumpy individual from the start, but she still couldn't understand why this happened so much in her own home, it was always worse. Everything was worse, and terrible. She tried to talk to her brother about this but even he was as baffled, as was Nora and every other mage, healer, and physician that had been consulted, and there was nothing they could do. She was practically cursed! Her chance of true divinity and a god's world were crippled too.
Any malicious magic of this realm would not be spared. Even the magics of the after worlds obeyed this, yet this was not their doing.
She was shivering. Her hooves were trembling. Stellaura lurched forward and vomited.
...So why was it getting worse as she got older?
After she recovered, the princess flew off to join her siblings.
...
Stellaura wanted to be anywhere but here. She wanted the constant feeling of dread that happened whenever she was around such magic.
She lived in a world bursting with magic that it could never be separated from, even if this thought had occurred to any creature, it would make no difference. It was a world that was contributing to a sickness of both mind and body that no creature had the power to stop.
Even when there was not a single soul around she still felt as if somepony was watching, trying to lead her with only this creeping paranoia but something else. What was it?
What did the magic want? What could it be saying to ears as deaf as hers, what was it trying to show to eyes that were blind?
She did not know that this was true, that there were machinations she remained unaware of.
However this did not mean Stellaura knew nothing.
She knew the world was burning.
All around her there was fire: the red of the jinni's flame and the warm, white light of Nora's fire magic, which was regarded as holy by ponies. This included the very same ponies who had called the three siblings to the outskirts of their village where the troublesome spirit had retreated, the Alicorns in aerial pursuit. Stellaura had the misfortune of being the closest to the fire spirit.
Maybe you are not cut out to be a princess, the ever-present little voice nagged. Why did it have to bother her now? Ponies were in trouble!
Nora knows you cannot rule.
Stop, she begged, swiveling clumsily to avoid a stray rose-red flame. She glided higher to avoid the scorched sands.
She had to focus.
Focus on what, Stellaura? How about your weaknesses - that is all you are! Years shut up in the castle has made it too hard for you to fly.Your mind is feeble, your heart is weak. Look at Hasad, look at all those that surround you -
they are better and will always be!
She had to keep flying. She shouldn't listen.
He is your twin, yet, you are anything but equal. All you are is babbling foal unfit to even be an Alicorn!
All she had to do was keep flying, close her eyes, and most of all not cry.
Don't listen.
"That would be wise, now, if only you could follow your own advice, hmm?" The voice was feminine sounding, but belonged to no creature she knew.
Stellaura's eyes fluttered open and she found herself lost in the fire, her siblings nowhere to be seen as smoke stung her eyes, made her lungs ache, and a overwhelmingly warm blood-hued inferno circling her, stretching into the sky and blotting it out. This left the silver coated Alicorn whose curly mane shone, waved, and sparkled like a proper goddesses'.
Who spoke those words? Where were they? "Was it the jinn?"
"That I am," the voiced said, sounder calmer then before. Stellaura realized she said the last part out loud and bit the inside of cheek until she tasted blood. She could see through the intense layers of fire that would have caused a normal creature to perish; a small ball of fire that was disembodied from the rest of the chaos: the natural form of the jinn, a creature whose might would have been nothing against a stronger willed and quick thinking Alicorn.
Stellaura was staring straight into the 'eyes' of the jinn. Presumably, she was caught in its trap.
The jinn took the ethereal shape of an earth pony mare, her body constructed out of the very same flames she caused mischief with. There were noticeable differences: her legs did not end with hooves but clumps of sizzling flame that hid where any possible hooves could have been. Her eyes had no pupils but pockets of sparks, their lashes thin veils flame.
The jinn smiled knowingly at the princess, although she hadn't the faintest idea what the creature could be grinning about.
"W-what is it that you want s-spirit?" Sputtered Stellaura, choking slightly on some of the blood from before.
The jinn paused, her unusual eyes seemed to be staring straight through Stellaura. "For a princess, you are very rude, it seems you lack proper manner, since you do not even bother to give your own name."
Stellaura brought a hoof to her face to wipe away a few drops of sweat, which was not from the fire. She wanted to hide. Was this jinn playing games with her? She had never met one so she wouldn't know. All the stories say that they are fire spirits that rarely congregate, instead scorching the sands as they travel, much like the grains when blown by the wind. They are also reported to have the gift of prophecy, yet rarely did they ever know what their parlor trick level predictions meant, only High Queen Lumina of the Everfree was known to have such a power, bestowed upon her by the Tree, Harmonia herself.
Never in her six thousand years did Stellaura think she would ever meet one - much less leave the city for this long. She may have been a full grown adult, currently equal to a mortal mare approaching her mid-twenties but she remained relatively helpless thanks to Hasad always helping her to get out of any kind of panic-inducing royal duties - most of which were important to the ponies they ruled over. She was not a recluse but because of her magic Stellaura had become a shut-in like the bears up north when they hibernated, except all of Marecca was her cave.
She meant the gaze of the jinn. Perhaps... perhaps it was time to change that...
...one step at a time...
Her horn ignited with lime green magic.
...one spell at a time...
She didn't know what she was doing, much less what the magic was going to do. She unfolded her wings and glided after the jinn who had been smart enough to move, it too, was gliding on streams of fire and wasn't sure of what magic was coming.
But Stellaura felt as if she knew what to do now.
She had to contain the fire and the one who made it. She would take it and store it somewhere. Stellaura like all of this time did not know that there would one day be two sisters who would manage similar feats to what she was about to do now, although with their own measures of strength as twists to the process even if they would never meet this mare.
It didn't matter, this was Stellaura's moment, to do something unique, something only she could do that no matter what cannot be replicated exactly by any other.
Stellaura shot a blast of magic toward the spirit, who was fast enough and watched as it enveloped her fiery form.
She disappeared in the sparkling cloud so unlike any color that could be found in abundance in the vast stretches of sand she called home.
A plain gold lamp fell to the sand, it was the only thing she had been able to think of and it had worked.
There was a flash of white and Stellaura looked at a her once-bare flank with a gasp. Nora had always told her that it would take longer for most Alicorns to gain the marks of their destiny-one of the few things they shared with ponies - and now here it was! A glimmering lamp, that was made of many different jewels and gleaming gold accents with a bluish cloud that glittered right beside it as it flowed forth in the form on a unicorn-esque silhouette.
She picked up the lamp with the very same magic that she had used to conjure the object and seal the jinn.
Stellaura could hardly wait to tell her brother and sister what had happened... this meant that she was Elinora's peer, she would have a coronation that would go down in all the history records for years to come. This was her first step to officially dealing with all the other immortals of this world and becoming a proper goddess.
Somehow she would manage to tell them: her family, her ponies, the world itself what she managed to do here.
...one word at a time...