//------------------------------// // It Begins With Something So Small And Simple // Story: Clara Terram: The Other Side Of The World // by Bucking Nonsense //------------------------------// It begins with a filly showing up at Canterlot Castle. It was a bright and sunny afternoon as Princess Luna came winging into Canterlot from her visit to Manehattan. It had been a rather dull affair: The appointment of the new mayor required a royal presence, as it did in any major metropolitan center in Equestria. However, presence was all that was required, so in these situations, Luna and Celestia would take turns attending events like these. Admittedly, they were important, and it was good to get out of the palace every now and again, but she genuinely wondered if every politician in the county measured their own importance based solely on the length of their speeches. If this were the case, the new mayor of Manehattan considered himself the most important pony in the history of Equestria, if not the entire world... Luna was distracted from her thoughts by an unusual sight at the main entrance to the castle: A small filly was conversing with the guards stationed there. An unexpected thing to see, as there were no tours or field trips scheduled today. Curious, Luna set down a short distance away, and began walking towards them. She had found that most ponies do not appreciate having a princess suddenly materialize unexpectedly behind them, and causing one heart attack was enough for her to begin exercising a bit more caution, even with young ponies. "Look, I'm sorry miss, but the library's off limits to anypony except palace staff and authorized guests," the guard explained to the young filly. "If it was up to me, I'd let you in. I don't see no harm in it. But it isn't up to me. It's regulations..." Clearing her throat, Luna asked, "What seems to be the problem, Captain Thunderbolt?" The younger princess had spent the better part of the year getting to know the faces of every guard in the palace, especially after the changeling invasion. She counted it a mark of pride that she knew all but the latest batch of recruits on sight, and even those she was getting a feel for. The captain straightened up, and looked over at the princess. Clearing his throat, he said, "I was just informing this young lady that the castle library is off limits to the public." The filly turned and faced Princess Luna, her expression so blank, so perfectly neutral, that the alicorn couldn't help but briefly wonder if Maude Pie had a daughter. Dismissing the ridiculous thought almost immediately (This filly being too old, and Maude Pie being too young), she took a moment to study the pony more carefully. She was an earth pony, and had a butter yellow coat, and a purple mane and tail, both of which she kept in a tightly managed bun. She was very slender for her age, but held herself with a strange sort of dignity, which was odd for a filly so young. However, while her face was expressionless, there was something in her purple-colored eyes that seemed to say something to the princess, but Luna could not say for certain what it was. She carried a backpack, letting its weight rest on the ground while she was not in motion. In a dull, emotionless, almost lifeless monotone, the filly said, "I need a book for a project at school. It's one I read before, maybe a year ago. The school library didn't have it, and the city library's copy was apparently checked out five moons ago and was never returned, a replacement not yet having come in. Canterlot Castle's library is famed for having every book ever written in Equestria, or just about, so I thought I'd ask if I could see the copy here. I only needed to write down some information for my project, maybe two or three paragraphs." "I see," Luna said, her expression thoughtful. Most ponies would have immediately given up after finding out the book was unavailable at the public library. Instead, this young filly had the gumption to walk right up to the castle and ask if she could see the royal library's copy. Admittedly, it was true that the library was intended for castle staff, as the guard said, but Luna wouldn't have a problem with a young filly paying a short visit, and she knew for a fact that Celestia wouldn't have any complaints about a young visitor like this one: If there was one thing that Celestia loved more than cake (And Celestia's hindquarters announced that affection in a language that anypony could understand), it was having young ponies visit the castle. Every day was considered bring your son and/or daughter to work day for her: The palace featured the single largest nursery in the nation. "Well, if that is all you need, young lady," the princess said with a nod, "I can certainly oblige you. If you'll follow me..." ----------------------------- "So," Luna asked, a few short minutes later, "which book were you needing to see, ah...?" The castle library was as grand as it always was. Admittedly, the library in the Crystal Empire was even larger, but it was still in the process of updating its contents, many of it tomes being current for a library a thousand years ago. Many of those tomes were practically relics found noplace else and would need to be relocated to the castle for safekeeping, or woefully out of date and best discarded or burned. Still, Luna felt a small measure of pride at the size of this library: It had originally been her idea to house copies of all the books in the nation inside of the palace. After one fiend or another a thousand years ago (It was hard to remember which one did what, given how many of them there were) had tried to burn every library in the nation in attempt to hide the secret of his long ago documented weakness, she'd had the thought that it might be a good idea to keep a copy of every book ever printed, so such vital information would be impossible, or practically impossible, to lose. While it had been under construction just before her banishment, it pleased her greatly that Celestia had completed it in Luna's absence... "Starburst," the filly stated flatly. It wasn't unfriendly, or even rude. It was just... empty. "And the book I was needing to see was 'The Mystery Of The Baltimare Derelict, by Purple Prose'." Nodding, Luna said, "Let me ask the head librarian to bring it." The librarian in question, a beige, grandfatherly unicorn stallion by the name of Subscript, was seated at the front desk, doing restoration work on one of the many ancient tomes that filled the library. It took a staff of dozens of ponies to maintain the dozens of books that, due to time and wear, were at risk of falling apart, but the older pony still took pleasure in doing some of the work himself. Clearing her throat, Luna was able to distract him from his work. "Ah, Princess Luna," the elderly librarian said, a kind smile on his wrinkled features, "it is always a pleasure to see you. How might I assist you?" "I was needing to borrow one of your books," Luna explained. "The Mystery Of The Baltimare Derelict, by Purple Prose. Might you have a copy?" "I do," the stallion said with a nod, signalling a passing junior librarian, and sending him after the volume in question. "An interesting read, to say the least. Always reminds me that, for all that we know, we know very little about the world outside of Equestria." Surprised, Luna asked, "How so?" At her side, Starburst piped in, stating, "The Baltimare Derelict is the name given to a shipwreck that sailed mysteriously into Baltimare harbor six hundred years ago, nopony aboard, and while moderately damaged, not sufficiently so to justify the absence of the crew. No vessel like it has been encountered even to this day, and it contained the single most mysterious item ever discovered in Equestrian history: A scroll that no translation spell cast can crack. Even today, its meaning remains unknown, but the few diagrams displayed on the scroll point to it being instructions for the construction of some sort of device, the nature of which is unknown. However, since the materials needed, the size intended, and how it is meant to be assembled are all in an indecipherable language, it is considered impossible to build, currently." Subscript raised a bushy eyebrow, and after looking down to see the speaker, said, "Exactly right, young lady. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting a five year old filly to have read about that topic: I've always found Purple Prose's work to be a little too pedantic for young readers, but nopony else has ever bothered doing a study of the Derelict in recent history." Nodding, the filly said, "I know. And it was a bit... thick, when I read it a year ago. But I was hoping to copy a part of it for an assignment." "And what assignment would that be?" the librarian asked, intrigued. Starburst stated, "My teacher gave us an assignment today, relating to the history of the Red Plains War. One of the turning points of the war was when Equestria came up with a coding system that made it impossible for communications to be translated, even if intercepted. That, combined with a spell that allowed us to invisibly intercept enemy communications, allowed us to outmaneuver the enemy forces and ultimately forced Red Ruin, the leader of the Red Plains forces, to surrender. Magic can decipher normally written messages, but it can't crack codes written in a foreign language. The teacher gave us an assignment to come up with a code of our own, and then write a sentence in that code. If one of us could come up with a code that he couldn't crack, the teacher promised to buy us all ice cream on friday. And I like ice cream." Confused, Luna asked, "And what does that have to do with this derelict?" "I think I figured out how to crack the mystery of what's written on scroll," Starburst stated flatly, "and if I'm right, then I'm pretty sure that my teacher, smart as he is, won't be able to break a code that has stumped scholars for six centuries." One thing Luna would learn in the days and weeks to come was that, if there was one thing that Starburst took seriously, it was ice cream... or sweets of any kind, really. -------------------------- In front of the table that Starburst sat were now three books, and two adult ponies looking over her shoulders. One of which was the tome she'd come to the castle library to see, and the other two were ones that she'd been carrying in her backpack: Basic And Advanced Cryptograms, and Pre-Unification Era Equestrian Dialects. Not exactly the kind of books a five year old filly normally reads. "I like to read," Starburst explained, "and I read a lot. I'm told that my reading level is at a university grade, but that's just what I've been told. And when the teacher went over this lesson, I remembered the scroll mentioned in the book about the derelict. So, I thought, maybe it was in code. And a coded message can't be cracked by a translation spell. A cipher spell can crack a coded message, but only if you know the language it was written in, and use the appropriate spell. But a coded message in an unknown language cannot be cracked by any spell, if I remember correctly from 'Shortcomings Of Linguistic Magicks'." Subscript nodded, saying, "Indeed." "But if a translation spell doesn't work on either a coded message in a known language, or a coded message in an unknown language, then it's impossible to tell the difference between the two just by casting a spell. But," Starburst added," there are ways of figuring out what language a cryptogram is written in, based on certain indicators. At least if the cryptogram is simple enough." Pointing at the two tomes in front of her, Starburst said, "These two are the key." Opening the book, Pre-Unification Era Equestrian Dialects, she flipped forward to the section on Earth Pony dialects. "Earth ponies used, way back before Equestria was a single country, a Base 4 number system, and their written language was based solely on words containing four letters, although their alphabet was forty characters long, allowing for a lot of different combinations. It wasn't until the unification that they adopted the unicorn's Base 10 number system, and the pegasai's modern twenty-six character alphabet." She opened the book, The Mystery Of The Baltimare Derelict, and pointed to the copy of the scroll inscribed on page eighty-seven. "And each of the words on this scroll are four letters long," Starburst concluded. "There are, as I remembered, forty-four different symbols on this scroll. Four numbers, forty letters." She pointed to the tome concerning cryptograms. "The simplest cryptograms used in ancient times were just replacing letters and numbers with symbols. So, it's just a matter of working out which symbols correspond to which letters and numbers." She pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil from her backpack, and began copying the symbols on the copy of the scroll. "I think I can have it worked out by dinner, if not, then before bed time." "But why would a scroll on a shipwrecked derelict from six hundred years ago be written in an ancient Earth Pony dialect?" Princess Luna asked, confused. "How should I know?" Starburst asked, sarcasm shining through in spite of her dull monotone, the tone undulled by the fact that she was holding a pencil in her mouth. "I'm five years old, and I don't even have a cutie mark. I'm not some kind of super-genius." "Said the filly who just cracked a six century old mystery in the course of an afternoon," Luna quipped back reflexively. For an instant, it seemed as if the filly might smile, but after a second, the moment passed. Clearing her throat, Luna said, "Well, I would be grateful if, after you've decoded the contents of this scroll, you'd be willing to share what you've discovered with us. I'm certain that there are many scholars who would be interested in what it has to say." And then, as an afterthought, added, "I'll make certain that you receive full credit for your discoveries, of course." The filly nodded, and said, "Thank you, your highness." --------------------------------- As she departed the library, Starburst did her best to keep her 'poker face' up. It wasn't easy: She'd had to maintain her cover under very difficult and frustrating circumstances. She'd never, in any of her turns of the cycle, been very good at acting. The best she could ever manage was a kind of 'blank' expression that she knew many found off-putting. However, it was effective in keeping her true intentions hidden. For the thousandth time since her 'birth' here in Equestria, she cursed her terrible luck at being stuck in this place: Starburst, also known as Lady Violet, The Knight of the Royal Purple, First of the Chroma, stuck in the body of a young filly so far from Clara Terram that nopony here had even heard of her home country, let alone her. Had her latest incarnation been located in her homeland, the moment she regained the ability of speech, she could have announced her identity and be assured of immediate return to her former status, and be assured as well that she could spend her formative years in safety (and luxury) until she was ready to again take her title as defender of the realm, rather than being stuck as an orphan in this primitive backwater. Instead... Well, at least they had ice cream. And candy. The Equestrians had gotten that right, at least, and Starburst supposed that was something. Still, it was frustrating to have to wait this long to put everything together. After all, it wasn't like she could claim to have broken the 'code' when she was two, right? It wasn't even actually a code, but the actual written language of Clara Terram that was recorded on that scroll. Her people had just assumed that the basic structure of their written language had not changed too much over the last few centuries and would be easy for anypony with a basic understanding of the Earth Pony alphabet to decipher... Instead, the scroll had been considered indecipherable after unicorns spent a week throwing spells at it, and then was all but forgotten, a footnote in history on both sides of the world. Clara Terram assumed that ponykind no longer existed on the other side of the world, and went on with its business. Meanwhile, the scroll was considered a curiosity here, instead of a message from a far removed tribe of ponies who had grown into a powerful country in its own right. Of course, nopony, or at least no unicorn, had ever thought to ask an Earth Pony to take a look at it, especially not one who knew anything about the old ways. Things might have gone much differently, if they had. Luna's presence had been unexpected, yet also a boon: This project would now have royal attention, and the device that was on that scroll would allow Starburst to finally get a message through to her homeland. Instead of having to scavenge for parts herself, the princesses would do all the hoofwork for her, assembling the device and opening communications to Starburst's compatriots. From there, things would quickly fall into place. While blank faced, Starburst couldn't help but chuckle on the inside: She was certain that the ponies here would be completely amazed by the complex mechanism detailed within the scroll, a device that nopony in this backwater cultural wasteland had ever conceived of, a device that even the young colts and fillies of Clara Terram used on a regular basis... A smartphone. She looked briefly over her shoulder, and saw Luna watching her leave. After a moment, Starburst waved goodbye, and went back to walking. 'When I'm back where I belong,' she thought to herself, 'I'll remember this day. Be grateful, Princess Of Nowhere Special: By this time next year, you'll need all the friends you can get.' She needed to return home. Her people needed her. But sadly, getting home was going to mean forcing Equestria to become part of a much wider world... and the ponies here would soon learn that they were just a big fish in a small pond, compared to the whales and sharks who swam in a vast ocean.