//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The North Star // by Frostjack //------------------------------// Chapter 1- The morning was cool and crisp as the hustle and bustle of Fillydelphia's everyday commute began. Ponies left and right were making their way through their morning routines. Hardy hellos were heard from passerby's and the smell of bake goods filled the air as Starlight exited the hotel. Starlight loved the city. How busy it was, like it had its own heartbeat. Her and Twilight came here to read to fillies for a school program which they took turns in. She did her tour yesterday and today was Twilight's. So that meant she had the whole day to herself! Breakfast was first on her agenda, and the cafe they had seen the other day was calling her name! //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// On the other side of town in the 'less reputable' area was a small two story building with a sign that read "Curiosity and Curses". A shop that had for sure seen better days. Dispite its looks of abandonment one of its occupants left the building. A brown furred earth pony with blue eyes named Polaris Knight waked out of the shop with a grey coat and a saddle bag. He began to run his errands for the day, firstly was clear out anyone sleeping in the alleyway on the side of his house. Second, he was off to the store to buy more supplies for his sister. a few more quills and few jars simple things. Lastly he was off to every bookstore in the city to find a certain tome. "Clover the Clever's incomplete Guide to Mysterious Oddities." This book had alluded him at every turn. Destiny was intent on denying him this book he thought. But that wouldn't stop him! This book wasn't for him mind you but his sister who wanted it since she was a filly. His sister Stella Knight gave up on the search for this book after there adolescence but her brother continued the search. A grow came from his stomach. "Maybe some breakfast before that." He said acknowledging his empty belly. Luckily he knew of a bakery near by that let him 'steal' some of the day old pastries. "An apple fritter sure would hit the spot right about now." Wiping the drool off his mouth he started his way down the street. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Have a great day miss!" the barista behind the counter shouted Starlight. She gave a polite wave and exited the quaint little cafe. Being a bit too crowded for her tastes she decided not have breakfast there but just a simple coffee. She could go without until lunch. I mean it wouldn't be the first time.' She thought to herself, 'I am just not much of a morning mare.' She thought on how most of her mornings consisted of caffeine as a regular routine. Her mentor Twilight's morning routine involved a book or three. 'How she reads so many books in one day is beyond me.' Her thoughts wandered as she made here way through the city, admiring the architecture and sights. 'I should get something for Twilight for ditching her.' She knew what she would get her for a gift, a book obviously, but what kind? What genre? Hardback? Signed copy? Maybe something in a foreign language? She stomped her hoof in frustration. She was terrible at deciding what kind of gift to get ponies. This thought was interrupted when she came across a small store named "Books Abound." "Maybe ill just ask what the clerk what they recommend." She said as she walked into the store. Books were stacked to the ceiling it looked like some kind of tornado swept through the place. The smell of paperback books filled the room. She always loved the smell of a bookstore. It was incredibly relaxing to her. Except the sound of a heated argument at the back counter sort of killed her vibe. The Noise came from a Brown coated earth pony with a brown hair that a green streak in it. "But 40 isnt what we agreed on." Said a rather aggressive earth pony. "Yes well like I told you sir, this is a one of a kind item, its not every day somepony stumbles upon a journal of Clover the Clever!" The pegasus clerk replied. 'One of a kind you say?' Starlight rubbed her chin, this book would definitely peak Twilight's interests. "Nopony can even read this book! Who's gonna buy a book you cant read?" Starlight excitement was hard to contain this book was everything she was looking for. She had to have it! Calmly walking up to the counter she put an elbow on the table. "Excuse me, but did hear you correctly about that journal?" she interjected. The sales pony directed his attention to the young mare. "Why yes miss you did indeed! This is none other than Clover the Clever's incomplete Guide to Mysterious Oddities." A hoofwritten book by on of the cleverest mage in all of Equestria second only to Starswirl himself!" He slid the book from the earth pony to the unicorn. "Only 40 Bits!" "40 is pretty high." She gave him a sideways look. "Maybe I could do it for 35." the clerk looked offended. "Madam! This isn't some autobiography! This tome is an important piece of historical literature! How many important secrets about the founding of our lands could be hidden within its pages. I doubt anyone could say!" Starlight rolled her eyes at his display as the earth pony reentered the conversation. "How do you know?" He said flatly gaining both of there attention. "I am sorry sir but I am doing business with somepony who knows the value of great literature." He brushed him off, but his question peaked Starlight's interest. "What do you mean 'how does he know?'" She inquired. "What I mean is that Nopony can read the book. It has a curse on it. A curse where any reader other than Clover the Clever forgets what they read." "Sir that is preposterous! And-and slanderous! To think I would be accused of selling cursed items in my own store!" "Then whats your favorite part of the book?" He asked. "Why the part where he banishes the Sirens of course!" The pegasus said puffing his chest out. "Wasn't that Starswirl the Bearded?" Starlight asked. "Clover wasn't even involved with that." The two patrons eyed the owner suspiciously. The sweat on his brow intensified as there gazes held firm. "Alright! I haven't read it okay!" He threw his hooves up in reluctance. "Look if I would love to give it to you for cheaper but i gotta make a profit too you know!" He said exhausted. "How about this." The earth pony started. "We can split the price, I just need like 1 to 10 pages from that book anyhow." "But thats almost an entire chapter." Starlight said. "Why do you need it anyhow?" "Its for my sister. She's been looking for this book for ages. She says theres this part in the book where Clover the Clever found ways to remove any curse." He explained. "Is your sister cursed?" She asked visibly concerned. "Oh no we run a shop on the other side of town that collects cursed objects. She just wants to know what kind of curses Clover wrote about." "What kind of shop deals in curses?" She asked. "How about I show you?" he said putting his bag of bits on the table. "20 minutes max." She was still wary about this book, but curse or no Twilight would love it. "Fine." she said reluctantly, "But Ill be carrying it." The earth pony shrugged. She didn't trust this guy. Anyone who dabbles in curses for a living was obviously bad news. They split the purchase and left the store. the morning chill was gone and sun shone bright. The two walked a couple of blocks in silence. And an awkward one at that. "I never introduced myself, Im Polaris Knight." He said smiling holding out a hoof. Starlight looked at it before shaking. "Im Starlight Glimmer." she was still weary of this Polaris but he seemed polite enough. "Have you eaten yet Starlight? I kinda got side tracked and skipped breakfast." He rubbed his stomach. "I know a great bakery around here. My treat for all the trouble." "Well if you insist." She smelled the air around her. "I could go for some baked goods." She agreed, not having eaten breakfast herself. A bit later they arrived at The Bread and Butter Bakery, the smell reminded her of sugar cube corner with all the delicious foods being baked. And as they entered a booming voice was heard from behind the counter. "Polaris? Lad is that you? Your late! I almost threw out these apple fritters!" A large balding stallion in an apron approached them with a bag of sweet smelling pastries. "And just who is this?" He said eyeing Starlight. "Far to beautiful to be your marefriend!" The loud and large baker said with a hardy laugh. Polaris rubbed he back of his head in embarrassment. "Ha ha no Mr. Dough, shes just a friend. More of a client really." Mr. Dough clapped him on the back causing him to tumble over. "Thats what the all say son!" His laugh was loud and filled the room, but was cut off by a tug from a much smaller unicorn, also adorn in an apron. "Sour Dough you leave boy alone!" His wife Brioche came with a second bag. "Here dearie, for you." She presented the bag to Starlight. "A friend of our Polaris is a friend of ours." "Oh no we just meet today." She tried to explain. "Im just helping him is all." "Whatever you say dear." Mrs. Dough went over to Polaris next as he was getting up. "How are you dear? Are you eating alright? Hows your sister?" She was inspecting him like a grandmother would a grandchild. "Im fine Mrs. Dough, were fine. Just getting some breakfast after running a few errands is all." he gave her a hug. "How are you two? Its starting to get cold again. Do you guys need someone to salt the entrance again? Or help clean around the store?" His concern was touching to Starlight. Maybe she was wrong about here initial judgment of him. "Yer too good to us lad." Mr. Dough said still rubbing his ear. "If we need anything well be sure to give you a ring. Now go on and enjoy your food you too. it wont stay warm for too long!" Polaris reached into his saddle bag and opened his mouth but was cut off but Mr. Dough. "Dont even think about paying you!" He growled as he walked away. "One of the few ways I get to see you and sister and I wont have you ruin it by paying." He smiled at Starlight as they walked out of the bakery. "And you tell that Stella to stop being such a stranger! Brioche misses her somethin fierce!" "You got it Mr.Dough." As they sat down he apologized. "Sorry about that they are old clients of ours." "So what exactly did you DO for them?" She inquired. "Oh, they had a rival baker down the road and he put a curse on there oven so that anything they bake burns." He paused to take a bite of his apple fritter. "My sister and I were hired to uncursed it." "So you two uncurse things? But you said you collect cursed items. Are they dangerous? Are you selling them to ponies?" She wasn't intending to fire so many questions at him but she couldn't help herself. Curses were dangerous things that corrupted innocent ponies into doing evil. But this colt didn't seem evil. He seemed pretty nice to be honest. Polaris sighed. "We dont sell cursed items Starlight. We remove the curse first then we sell it. We mainly do odd jobs here and there like at this bakery but we never put anypony in harms way." He continued his explanation as if it was rehearsed. "Contrary to belief not all curses are evil in nature. A curse is just a spell casted with strong emotions. The stronger the emotion the more powerful the curse is." We try to resolve the issue with the curses and dispel them. Well My sister does at least. Im just the assistant." "So you try to reason with the curses? How do you do that?" "Its just like talking to an animal or a flower. A little understanding goes a long way." "And thats why you need this book. You wanna see how Clover the Clever dealt with curses." She said finishing her food. "Exactly! My sister is hoping there is an easier way than just talking to an object. It dosent work all the time so we gotta put it in storage." "Well I have some experience with magical objects. Maybe I could give you some help?" She offered "Im sure my sister would love that! She dosent really get out much when she does a project." He said in a huff. A chuckle was heard from Starlight. "Trust me I know a pony like that. Never coming up for air from her book." Polaris nodded in agreement. "One time my sister didnt leave the house for three days. I almost had to spoon feed her!" "Does you sister do that thing where she talks to herself while she reads?" Polaris laughed. "Ha yeah she does! She'll argue with herself too! Like 'Gee I wonder whos winning.'" Now it was Starlights turn to laugh. It was a refreshing laugh. One she hadn't had in a while. It was rare when she found somepony who thought the same way she did. Not to say the ponies in Ponyvile weren't nice, it just that they weren't as open minded to a little friendly bashing as she was. "Hey thanks again for doing this I hope Im not dragging you away from anything important." She shook her head. "Nope I was just trying to see the sights before my train is all." "Oh what time is your train?" he asked checking his watch. "Not until late this afternoon. So we got plenty of time. Its not even noon yet!" Polaris flashed a big grin. "Great! Uh ahem, I mean thats cool, maybe we can grab some lunch after this and I can be like your personal tour guide." He offered nonchalantly. "I think Id like that." She said smiling at him. There eyes met for a moment before they both looked away awkwardly. "Oh look theres the shop." Polaris said quickly running ahead. Starlight took a second to catch her breath. 'Im just here to help with a curse thats it' she said trying to convince herself. She followed after him. The shop was two story brick building small garden in the front. A quaint little shop to be sure. As the door opened the bell above it rang. "Welcome to Curiosities and Curses." A voice said unenthusiasticly. "Stella im back." Polaris yelled. "And I got a surprise for you!" 'He looks so giddy' Starlight thought. The shop was a cluttered mess of random nick knacks but there looked to be some type of organized chaos to it.Not one she could decipher at the moment though. A unicorn came from one of the isles levitating a book. 'This must be his sister.' she thought. "Unless its bear claw im good." She didnt even look up from her book. Starlight made an attempt to get her attention with a cough. "Hmm?" Stella looked at Starlight for a moment and back to her brother. "You got a girlfriend. Finally." she said with a smug smile. "Um no my names Starlight Glimmer and the surprise is this." She levitated the book over to Stella who squinted to read the cover. Her face lit up with excitement. "Oh my gosh! Is this Clovers journal!?" she began flipping through the book as quickly as she could. "Ha ha I have no idea what im reading! It totally is!" She turned to Starlight. "How much? Ill give you 80 no 90 bits!" Stella was a little too close to for comfort. This was thankfully noticed by her brother who pushed her away. "Its not for sale. But we can borrow it for a bit. Im sure you can make some use of it right?" His sister deflated a bit but shot right back up. "Of course I can!" She ran off to the back room with the book. Polaris rolled his eyes as he followed. "Come on, we better make sure she dosent break something." "Is your sister always this excited about cursed books she cant read?" Starlight asked. "You have no idea." He replied. As the two followed Stella into the back room Starlight noted how it looked like more like a workshop. Tools used to chip and carve were everywhere and many gems of different shapes, size and colors littered the ground. A stack of paper and books over by a desk that seemed all too familiar to Starlight. "Are these magic tool?" She asked picking a chisel up. "The runes on the handle. What are the for?" "There for incantations." he said picking up a gem. "Look how these gems have carvings on them." He showed her a ruby whit a strange rune on it. "We use these enchanted tools to make conduits for our more dangerous curses. Sometimes there is excess magic that has to go somewhere when a curse leaves an object. We convert it into pure raw magic and send it to the local magic academy to be recycled." "Thats quite a clever way of getting rid of the magic." She gave Polaris a nudge. "I guess Clover wasn't the only clever one huh?" "Well I dont like to brag but yeah im pretty smart!" Starlight rolled her eyes and smiled at him. The mood was interrupted as his sister came tumbling back in with these odd looking goggles on her head. "Alright! These babies will let me block out that pesky 'no retaining' curse! Lets get to work!" She said with a big tooth grin. "Polie! Go get the Crystal of Transmit!" Starlight giggled at the nickname. "Polie?" She looked at him blushing. "Dont call me that." he grumbled under his breath as went to fetch the item leaving the two mares alone. "So." Stella said without looking up from the book. "How long have you two been seeing each other?" Starlights face felt red. "Were not dating I literally just met him today! Why does everypony keep asking me that!" She took a breath as Stella continued. "Well I think you two would look cute together! I mean he dosent really talk to any girls so I just assumed." She looked up from her book. "You dont think hes cute?" "Well I guess I havent thought about it." She said looking away. The smug smile from Stella returned. "Oh please, I saw you two flirting a moment ago." She went back to her book. "You were spying on us?" "Im a big sister. Of course I was." She said plainly. "And from where I was standing it looked like you were flirting." Starlight tried to form a sentence but only a stammering mess came out. Stella cocked an eye at her. "Dont worry im pretty sure he thinks your cute." The stammering turned into unintelligible garble of words followed by a heavy sigh. Just then Polaris re entered the room with large crystal. "Here." He placed it on the work bench in front of his sister. "You good Starlight?" he asked. "Oh yep Im just peachy! So whats that crystal?" She desperately wanted to change the subject. "This is the Crystal of Transmit! It was original created to allow for instant teleportation anywhere in Equestria but someones student corrupted it or something so you dont get to decide where it teleports you. We are gonna get rid of that pesty randomization curse!" As the began to research the journals entries. Starlight began to understand just why they do this thing in the first place. They wanted to rid objects of the malicious magic, and preserve the magic that was intended to help better the lives of ponies. The crystal for instance was created to make getting medicine to those in need faster. But the mage's pupil sought to gain profit from it. Seeing as how it was meant for charity and not greed the student was cast of his masters teachings and in a fit of rage the former student put a curse on the crystal so nopony could gain benefit from it. "Maybe if we use Stalwarts spell of purity on it" Starlight suggested. "And maybe Clovers incantation of calmness." "If we mix those with a few runes of Avarice to contain it." the pair of unicorns were getting excited. "THEN WE CAN DISPEL THE CURSE!" They shouted simultaneously. Polaris fell off of his chair due to there exclamations. "IM UP IM UP!" He looked at the two mares. "Did you fix it yet?" His sister rolled her eyes as Starlight laughed. "Come on Polie we gotta crystal to uncurse!" Starlight proclaimed. Polaris put the crystal in a wooden pedestal. He gripped an orange gem with a rune on it it each hoof as the unicorns prepared there spells. "Are you sure he'll be alright?" Starlight asked. "Oh yeah ill be fine we do this all the time." Polaris said with a reassuring grin. "Less lip more ship!" Stella said already preparing her spell. "I really hope this works!" Starlight nodded in agreement. They shot there magic at the crystal and it began to hum. Low at first but then the sound began to grow. The crystal was harmonizing with the magic. The Magic was then being filtered through the crystal into the orange gems. This went on for a few seconds until a crack was heard from the crystal. "Uh Guys?" The humming was getting louder. "UH GUYS?" Polaris was too slow in getting their attention. The crystal exploded into two pieces sending a shock wave that knocked Polaris back into the mountain of books and paper. "Polaris!" Starlight yelled as she rush towards him. Smoke filled the room as Stella rushed to open the windows. "Are you alright?" She asked as she helped him up. "Just peachy," He said with a cough."All the books broke my fall." "And you always complain that I never clean anything." Stella chuckled. Polaris dusted himself off laughing. He walked over and picked up one of the crystal halves. "Well that could have gone better." He said. Starlight finding the other half picked it up as well. "I wonder what could have happened." Stella asked scratching her head. "Was it because our magic frequencies were resonating with the crystalline structure of item? Oh well this gives me TONS of new ideas on how to deal with curses!" "Well Im so happy for you. But no more curse fixing until this place is cleaned. Cant run a shop that looks like a warzone!" Polaris said bluntly. "Your no fun" Stella said sitcking her tounge out at him. "Hey thats great and all but why am I seeing Polaris in this gem?" Starlight said looking into her half of the crystal. "And where is that echo coming from?" The three looked around the room following the sound to Polaris's half. Looking into it he saw Starlight's face. The two halves of the crystal were still connected to one another. visually and audibly. "Its like sending a scroll with out a scroll!" Stella yelled! Its quite literally transmitting light and sound waves from one point of contact to another! Maybe the spells were not a dud after all!" She ran over to Starlight still confused from the spell casting. "Do you think you could keep this half and try contacting us from your home? Id very much like to how far the range on this thing is!" She almost had a sparkle in her eye when she asked. How could she say no. "Give it here a second." Polaris said as he scrounged around the mess that was the back room. Finding two long strips of leather he fashioned the crystals into two necklaces. "Boom, that some fly lookin magic crystals we got here." He put his around his neck and tied it. "Here let me." He reached his arms around Starlight tying it around her neck. A blush was shared from the pair as he pulled away. "Wow you've known her for like 4 hours and already getting matching jewelry." His sister teased. "Romantic." They both turned to say something but Starlight gasped. 4 hours!? Was it that late? "Im gonna miss my train!" She gathered her things. "Sorry guys but I gotta go!" "Yeah no problem! OH dont forget the book!" Polaris said tossing it to her. "And you'll probably want these as well!" Stella levitated the goggles onto her head as she rushed out the door. "Aaaand shes gone." She leaned on her brother. "Dont be sad little one! You'll always have Fillydelphia." He gave her a shove as he held his crystal. "Im sure we'll here from her soon."