//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - The Mysterious Stain // Story: The Legend Of Star Swirl The Bearded // by Blueshift //------------------------------// “It’s ah… just up here Mr Swirl!” Star Swirl stood back as the guard heaved her wooden cart up the narrow spiral staircase that seemed to stretch up forever. There were clatters and bangs and several items looked like they were about to topple off. Every so often, something looked like it would fall, and Star Swirl had to deftly rush up the stairs to balance the runaway item back on top. “Could you uh, could you not use your magic to teleport it?” The guard’s voice was strained. Star Swirl could see that the guard had enveloped the cart in a weak magical field to aid with the lifting, but was having to pull most of it by hoof. “There’s nothing wrong with good honest work, that’s what I always say!” Star Swirl called up around the stairwell as she continued to climb. “Besides, I’m holding onto the back end!” She continued to trot upwards, making no effort to help push the difficultly sized object up the stairs. The surrealism of the day’s events still stuck in her mind, and she kept having to shake her tired head to make sure it wasn’t all a dream. The king had bade her leave to settle down in her new lodgings and her new student had gone to pack her belongings to move in the next day, meaning that the night was Star Swirl’s. She was going to do a lot of sleeping. And counting money. But mainly sleeping. “Made it!” The guard reached the top of the stairs and collapsed. With an almighty crash, the cart that she was hauling continued to move, toppling onto the poor pony and covering her with a wide array of goods. Star Swirl shook her head in annoyance as she edged past the spilt cart onto the landing area, starting to lift her precious possessions back into place, inspecting each one intently. “I hope there’s nothing broken!” she exclaimed, narrowing her eyes. The guard picked herself up, dislodging a few items which bounced down the stairs. “No no, I’m fine, don’t worry about me!” she chirped happily, moving a few of the fallen items back into the cart. “Always looking out for me, aren’t you Mr Swirl?” At last confident that her stock was still intact, Star Swirl took a step back and stared at the guard. There was something strangely familiar about the blue unicorn with the slightly lighter blue mane clad in battered armour that stood in front of her. “I’ve met you before, haven’t I?” Star Swirl muttered with a twinge of recognition. “Oh yes sir!” the guard chirped, giving a quick salute. “Blueberry Fizz at your service! I ah, was there when you killed all those goats, Mr Swirl! Got a promotion out of it, officer of the palace now!” She gave a nervous cough and tugged at the collar of her armour. “Truth of the matter is, I did… exaggerate my part in all that to the king a bit, maybe embellished things to make myself look better…” Star Swirl was slightly taken aback at this; she was expecting at least some sort of rebuttal as to her reported actions the previous night. Then again it had been dark. She graciously waved a hoof. “No, don’t worry, I don’t mind sharing a small amount of the glory!” Blueberry gave a small sigh of relief, using a burst of magic to fish a large bundle of keys from within her armour, trying each one in turn in the door. “That’s a relief, Red thought I’d get in trouble but she’s always worrying about me.” She gave a wink at Star Swirl. “But if the king asks, I took down half a dozen goats, right?” Star Swirl just retorted with what she thought was the best approximation of a stubborn frown. “Lying will always get you into trouble, young pony!” she uttered in an attempt at sage wisdom. “But to protect your honour I am happy to bend the truth slightly.” She waggled a hoof. “But believe me, no good ever comes from lying,” At that moment, the lock on the door finally clicked and the door swung open, to reveal a sumptuous room decorated in silks and tapestries, with shelves full of precious ornaments and scrolls. “Starshine the Unready’s lodgings!” Blueberry proudly announced, following a slightly stunned Star Swirl into the room. Star Swirl picked her jaw up off the floor as she looked around, taking in the details. She had expected a small, functional room rather than a complete suite. Doors led off the main sitting area, but even the front room was bigger than her entire cabin at home. She trotted over to a nearby painting, mentally calculating the value. “And it’s… all mine?” she asked again, in slight disbelief. “Sure, well, Starshine is hardly likely to come back for it, is he?” Blueberry gave a quick roll of her eyes, and pointed at a far door. “That’s Starshine’s room, now yours of course…” she sauntered around, indicating various items of interest. “That’s Starshine’s scroll collection, that’s Starshine’s couch, that’s Starshine’s spice rack…” Turning around, Star Swirl narrowed her eyes at the centre of the room. “And, uh, what’s that?” she nodded hesitantly towards a suspicious looking stain in the middle of the carpet. “Oh, that’s Starshine!” Blueberry cheerfully wandered over to the burnt patch that marred the room somewhat; a dusting of charcoal in the shape of a pony, which had a chalk line drawn around it, and was cordoned off with a tape that read “DO NOT CROSS”. “Okay…” Star Swirl stared down at the remains of the room’s former occupant. “I… I guess I can put a rug over it or something.” “That’s the spirit!” Blueberry grinned, beginning to give Star Swirl a playful punch on the side before thinking better of it and withdrawing her hoof. “Now don’t you go immolating yourself with dangerous magic spells!” Star Swirl gave a knowing smile. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem…” She stifled a quick yawn, eager to finally get some rest. “Now, if that’s everything…?” “Oh of course of course…” Blueberry trailed off, looking slightly sheepish and plucking a blank sheet of paper and a quill from her armour. “Just one thing… could you give me your autograph?” She hovered the paper in front of Star Swirl, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. “Fine, that’ll be…” Star Swirl shook her head. She could afford to be generous to this pony, who had at least helped embellish her reputation somewhat. “That’ll be fine!” “Oh brilliant!” Blueberry gave a little leap of joy, then a slightly shifty look came across her features. “Can you sign it to ‘Dear Successful Bidder’. That’s my auntie, she loves collecting the autographs of famous wizards!” she explained quickly. Star Swirl gripped the quill in her mouth, and then slowly lowered it with a disapproving stare. “Good try, but here’s a tip. Never show your hoof too early. It’s signed to you or nothing.” She quickly scribbled Blueberry’s name on the paper and then autographed her name underneath. There was only room for one money-grabbing pony in the castle, and she wasn’t about to help a rival. A slightly disappointed Blueberry took the signature, and soon Star Swirl was alone in her room. Placing her hooves on a window ledge, she looked out across the vast expanse of the city below her, and closed her eyes, taking in a large breath of mountain air. “Who’s a clever pony?” she smirked to herself. Blueberry slowly trotted down the spiral staircase, the paper tucked safely into the front of her armour. It was good to have the autograph of such a powerful wizard, she considered. But she could never understand why it was always so difficult to convince celebrities to sign things for auntie Successful Bidder’s collection. *** That night, Star Swirl had one of the best sleeps she had ever had in her life. The bedroom was as similarly massive as the front room, and featured heavy wooden wardrobes which seemed to be full of wizards robes, shelves upon shelves full of books and mysterious objects, and even a gold-rimmed full length mirror. Most important however, was the bed. It was easily twice as big as anything Star Swirl had ever slept on, with a huge soft mattress that seemed to be stuffed with goose feathers rather than the hay stuffing that she was used to. The pillows were similarly luxurious, but that night Star Swirl slept with two large bags of gold as pillows. It was less comfortable, but far, far more satisfying. Waking up was another matter entirely. Star Swirl jolted upright, her mane frizzing out at all angles as the incessant cacophony of an alarm clock woke her from her peaceful slumber. “You have got to be kidding me!” she muttered, tumbling out of bed, the bags of money she was hugging falling onto the floor with her. The room was pitch-black as she stumbled about hunting for the alarm. It was as if a pony was frantically pounding on a rather large bell in her ear. She soon located a candlestick by the side of her bed, and failing to find any matches, hurled it in the general direction of the ringing noise. There was a crash as something fell off a shelf, and the pitch of the ringing changed. Taking that as a direct hit, Star Swirl galloped in the direction of the noise, stopping only to smash her head on the wall. At her feet she could feel a rather large, vibrating alarm clock which was still blaring away. Star Swirl did the only logical thing. She started to stamp on it. “Shut up!” she wailed, her hooves pounding away at the fallen clock, feeling it splinter into smaller and smaller parts as she trod on it, the ringing noise becoming distorted and shallower. “Starshine, you bastard! If you hadn’t set fire to yourself, I would have!” Shaking her head, she carefully picked up the remains of the clock which was now making a ‘doink’ noise and wandered over to the window, which was visible only from the dim light of the stars outside which cast an ethereal pallor into the room. Star Swirl threw the clock out of the window with a heavy sigh. “It’s not even light yet!” she bemoaned, looking out at the dark city beneath her. “Why would anypony set their alarm so early? This guy must’ve been crazy!” The city wasn’t dark though. Star Swirl could see specks of light start to pop up all over the mountainous cityscape. At first one or two per mountainside, then more until the mountains surrounding the palace were awash with light. Blues, purples, yellows; colours of every sort seemed to be glowing from every window of every building. At first Star Swirl thought that the unicorns had all lit candles in their windows as part of some strange unicorn ritual, but as the glowing auras became brighter, dappling the stone buildings that stretched for miles across the mountain range with light, she realised what was going on. There was magic in the air. In each window of each building was a unicorn, their horns glowing with energy which seemed to crackle and swirl into the darkness. Then, from across the far horizon there was an orange glow as if the world itself was on fire. The blackness gave way to purples and oranges, as slowly the sun began to rise, its light spilling over the land in a tidal wave of colour. Star Swirl could almost feel her heart stopping at the sight of the city raising the sun, the unimaginable energy of the unicorn race pouring forth as one. Slowly the lights from the city blinked off as the sun began to naturally rise in the sky, and Star Swirl gazed out, feeling the first rays of morning sunshine prick at her cheeks, the warbling of the dawn chorus beginning to drift across the peaks. It was the beginnings of a beautiful day, a day in which anything was possible. One of boundless opportunities where every second was precious. Star Swirl closed the curtains and went back to bed. *** Star Swirl’s sleep was interrupted yet again by another racket, this time sounding like there was a pony in the front room smashing up the shelves. Her eyes flickered open in alarm and she instinctively checked that the moneybags lying in her bed were intact. Blinking unsteadily against the warm daylight that streamed into the window, Star Swirl thudded her body off the bed and considered her options, pressing her ear against the door. There was another tinkling noise from beyond the doorframe. Star Swirl furrowed her brow. Perhaps it was a burglar, here to steal all her money? If so, locking herself safely in her bedroom wouldn’t do much good. It could even be that goat ambassador, come after her for revenge for some imaginary insult such as exploding the heads of three thousand hypothetical goats. Star Swirl looked back towards her bed upon which lay her hard earned moneybags. She wasn’t going to let them go without a fight. “I should warn you!” she bellowed out from the protection of the closed door. “I’m the greatest wizard in all of Unicornia. Also I have a sock with half a brick in it, and I’m not afraid to use it!” With a quick twinge, she remembered that she kept her brick sock in her cart, which was currently sitting in the front room, an easy target for any prospective thief. Whilst her first instinct would be to try to barricade the door somehow and clamber out the window, the thought of leaving her hard-earned possessions to the mercy of a thief seemed… wrong somehow. She had worked hard to buy or ‘find’ them all; there was a principle at stake! More importantly, the huge drop beneath the window looked pretty dizzying. Reattaching her trusty beard and horn, Star Swirl rolled her shoulders, took a deep breath, and burst out of her bedroom with a yell. She ground to a halt almost immediately. Standing in her front room was a familiar green pony who was clumsily levitating a large cardboard box across the room, leaving a path of devastation in its wake as it swung wildly from side to side. With a crash, the box impacted on the nearest shelf, causing a torrent of scrolls and vases to impact on the pony’s head, one by one. “Hello Clover,” Star Swirl gave a scowl as she watched valuable ornament after valuable ornament shatter on the unicorn’s skull. She slowly trotted over to where her new apprentice lay, shaking her head. She wasn’t much to look at: a slight build, an unkempt pale mane, and a look of bemusement on her face, though that may have been due to having half the contents of the shelves dropped on top of her. Most importantly though, Clover was extremely plain, hardly the sort of pony Star Swirl would look twice at. It would, she considered wryly, keep the temptation to throw off her disguise for an ill-advised tryst to a complete minimum. “Hi Star Swirl sir!” Clover leapt to her feet, wincing as several more vases shattered due to the movement. She looked around herself in confusion, carefully stepping away from the pile of broken crockery and crumbling scrolls, each step causing another costly-sounding crunch. “I ah, just a little moving in problem!” she squeaked out, doing her best to avoid eye contact. “I’ll pay for the damages, don’t worry!” “Oh, no…” Star Swirl began nonchalantly, and then trailed off. Clover was still wearing that valuable necklace, it might help to build up her debt. “Don’t worry about that now, you can pay later…” Star Swirl flashed a warm smile and attempted to casually peer into Clover’s box in case any more jewels lay inside. It was disappointingly sparse, containing only a pile of clothes and envelopes, what looked like a small collection of soft toys and a single book. “Oh!” Clover’s face flushed bright red as she saw Star Swirl looking in her box. “I’m sorry, I don’t really have much. I only have one magic book too, it was handed to me by my parents; they could never afford to get me all the textbooks on the university reading lists…” She trailed off, looking glum, her magic swirling around the book and plucking it from the box and into her hooves, where she hugged it slightly shame facedly. “Nonsense!” Star Swirl gave a reassuring tap on the side to Clover, mentally processing the pony’s words as she did so. If Clover’s family was poor, that meant she didn’t realise how precious her necklace was, and that made it all the more likely she could convince her to part with it if she could ingratiate herself with Clover. “I mean, even now whenever I sit down and want to have a good read about magic, I pull out my copy of…” she leaned forwards to look at the title of Clover’s book “…The Junior Encyclopaedia Of Magic With Extra Pictures And No Hard Words.” Clover’s bottom lip wobbled as she looked down at her book. “You’re just saying that to be nice!” she wailed out, letting go of the book, which hovered upwards in front of Star Swirl with a flash of magic, opening up to reveal printed pages completely covered in scrawled pen marks. “I tried though, I tried and I tried, I really did!” She broke eye contact with Star Swirl, scrunching her face up. “I-I thought you might want to take a look at my notes and tell me where I went wrong and…” her voice trailed off into a whisper as she stared intently at the floor. Star Swirl looked at the quivering Clover, and coming to a decision, tugged the book out of her magical field. “I’ll get right on it!” she quipped back, watching Clover’s face break into a small smile. “Now, I must get back to my magical studies, it is only…” she looked at the large grandfather clock which sat at the far end of the room “…3pm.” Star Swirl grimaced. She had slept longer than she thought. The only answer to this problem was more sleep. “Do not wake – disturb – me from my meditations for another three hours!” Clover brightened up slightly as Star Swirl took the book, looking at her with wide eyes. “I can start to learn now sir, what’s my first lesson?” she chirped out. With a shake of her head Star Swirl looked at the shattered remains of her shelving that lay around Clover. “You can start by unpacking. Then I have a task for you which will utilise your special skills to their maximum!” “Do you mean my innate magical ability?” Clover started to bounce up and down slightly in excitement. “No Clover. I want you to clean up that mess.” Star Swirl waved a hoof in the direction of the broken shelves. “And then I want you to get rid of that!” She pointed towards the remains of Starshine. Clover slunk over to the stain in the centre of the room and peered at it suspiciously, pawing at the burnt charcoal. “I… guess so…” she muttered, her face falling. “Is this one of those ‘learn to be humble’ things sir? Because I mean, I’ve done a lot of that working as a cleaner for the past year and thought maybe we could skip that bit?” “No no no!” Star Swirl shook her head firmly. “I think you need about ten more humble points Clover, trust me on this!” She stifled a yawn and gave a slow stretch of her back. “Now, meditation calls!” With a twinkle of magic, Clover’s box started to levitate, swinging from side to side wildly again. It then crashed to the ground as Clover gave a little start. “Oh!” she exclaimed with a sudden burst of realisation. “That reminds me! One of the palace messengers said he had something for you, but you wouldn’t open the door. I guess you were in a magical trance or something!” Clover turned her attention to a small scroll that had been carefully placed on a side table. The scroll sparkled and floated into the air, unfurling itself in front of Star Swirl. Clover beamed proudly at her skill in undertaking such a simple magical feat. Star Swirl barely registered Clover as her eyes roved over the scroll, a smile slowly breaking over her face. “…And when you’ve finished that Clover, get the iron out! My robes need to be perfect!” Twirling around on the spot, Star Swirl dropped the scroll on the floor and headed back to bed. As Star Swirl’s bedroom door clicked shut, Clover looked about and curiously trotted over to the fallen scroll, peering at it. KING CARACTACUS HEREBY DEMANDS THE PRESENCE OF: STAR SWIRL THE BEARDED PLUS GUEST TO DINE AT THE GREAT HALL THIS EVENING. PLEASE FORWARD ANY APOLOGIES TO THE ROYAL EXECUTIONER. Clover considered this for a moment, and then beamed with unbounded excitement. “I’m going to need a new dress!”