Starswirl was very confused. "How can I not understand you?" he asked. "Is my hearing off?" He quickly checked if any of his hair or beard was covering anything critical, but alas it was not so. His ears were totally unobstructed, so he could hear her fine.
Katrina spoke again, but again her words were confusing. He recognised a few words, but otherwise he struggled to make sense of the sentences. The structure was right, but there was something about it that was off somehow.
He honestly wondered if there was some sort of language barrier, so he picked up the book with his horn, and flipped through the pages. Suddenly, he came across a spell, and smiled. "Aha! This ought to help!"
He called upon his magic reserves, and cast the spell, the entire room being blanketed in strange energies. Suddenly, the reception was improved, and he could understand Katrina clear as day.
"I assume it was that book?" she said.
"Indeed," Starswirl replied.
"Wait a second, how can I suddenly understand you?" Katrina asked.
"I cast a spell, called the Balelius Translaticon, that can instantly translate anything anybody is saying, allowing us to speak to one another with no difficulties," Starswirl replied. "It's quite an impressive spell, if I do say so myself. Anyway, I think this proves my theory quite conclusively."
"You mean with the artefacts?" Katrina asked.
"Indeed," Starswirl replied, as he levitated the sheets of paper in front of both himself and her. She crouched to look at them now, given that Starswirl was considerably shorter than she was. "These artefacts were left here by the Pillars when they passed onwards into the next life, and thanks to their magical properties, they were not affected. After all, as the words in these sacred pages state, 'Neither snow nor hail nor gloom of night will stay the righteous from their duty'."
"OK, so the artefacts got here," Katrina noted, taking out a pen and paper and jotting it down.
"Are you taking notes on my notes?"
"I don't mean to be rude, but your hornwriting is seriously messy."
"These works were never intended for one other than I to read, as this is a personal record. I fully expected a scribe to convert the relevant bits so they could be read by those who needed to read them."
"Erm, I think your personalities are starting to merge. You just spoke of Starswirl as yourself, not as a separate entity."
"When you seem to change into fictional characters for seemingly no reason, the concept of identity becomes rather fluid," Starswirl replied. "As you were saying on the artefacts?"
"OK, so the artefacts got here, which settles the question of how the Pillars are reappearing, but how did the original Pillars get here in the first place? We have a distinct hole in the information that we need to solve this mystery once and for all."
Starswirl flicked through some more pages in his book. "Ah! I think I have a useful passage here. This may help. It may not. It rather depends on the circumstances." He cleared his throat, and began to read. "At the Temple of Ponhenge, we kept going towards the base of Foal Mountain, where we will make our final Stand. However, there is every possibility that we may not make it back, and others will need to continue the struggle against the Evil One when we are expired from this Earth. To this end, these artefacts will carry a fragment of our power, for that will allow others to stand against the Darkness."
"Well, that's all clear enough," Katrina replied, "apart from the fact it sounds like you started halfway through the paragraph and dropped us in partway through the story. Let me just check this; they left artefacts lying around to ensure others could continue to fight the Evil One, whomever he is."
"Satan, maybe?" Starswirl suggested.
"Unlikely, given that Christianity and similar concepts don't seem to exist in Equestria. But then, we have another problem concerning the artefacts themselves. These artefacts are all from Equestria. So how did they end up in our world?"
"That is a question that we must answer," Starswirl replied, tugging on his enormous beard with his hoof. "But before that, we have something of far greater importance to do."
"And what is that?"
"Lunch."
Food had to be suddenly and abruptly rearranged owing to the fact that one of the residents of the house was suddenly a horse wizard thing. To this end, Starswirl slowly ate his way through a salad bowl whilst Katrina helped herself to some soup. They had recently stocked up on food owing to changes in Nottingham's Covid alertness level, and as a result didn't want to get caught short.
Starswirl seemed to be deep in thought about everything that was going on. "Artefact in the desert, another in a Bayou, and now Starswirl's journal in my own home."
He stepped up. "I've got it!"
"Got what?" Katrina asked.
"I've figured out why the Artefacts have appeared where they have. They have each appeared in a place connected to the Pillars. For example, the strange green necklace (which I suspect to be Glowpaz) appeared in the desert, which was the sort of place where Somnambula lived. Similarly, the bracelet appeared in a swamp in Louisiana, which in terms of terrain and environment is not too far removed from Hayseed Swamp, which Mage Meadowbrook called home. This means we can predict where the next ones will appear, as Starswirl's Journal was located in Nottingham by myself, which is not too far removed from where Starswirl lived, and the flower, which I am prepared to bet is Mistmane's flower, was located in China, which again-"
"Is similar to where Mistmane lived," Katrina finished. "That leaves only one artefact. Flash Magnus wore a shield, Invictus, which is often mistranslated as Netitus. It would make sense it would be located in an army barracks."
"There are thousands, if not millions, of Army bases and barracks across the world," Katrina pointed out. "There are at least four within striking distance of Olathe, one of which is the base of the Kansas National Guard."
"Maybe the book will help us figure out an answer," Starswirl said, as he turned the page to a spell and cast it.
There was a bright flash from the spell, but something was clearly wrong. For Starswirl the Bearded had pulled a vanishing act.