The preparations for the time travel spell were complex and took quite some time. A fact that pleased Starswirl immensely. He wished he could spend all of Twilight’s limited friendship-making-time on calculations and spellcasting… Oh well, you can’t have everything.
“That should do it,” Twilight said. “Now we just need to step into the circle and activate it, and we will be transported 500 years into the future.”
“Wonderful,” Starswirl said with false cheer. “Lets just go over everything again to make sure we didn’t miss anything…”
“No,” Twilight said flatly. “We have wasted too much time already, get into the circle.”
“What about lunch? I could go downstairs and pack a saddlebag...”
“NO!”
“There is no need to shout, Twilight. I was only asking,” Starswirl said as he stepped into the circle. “It never hurts to be prepared.”
Twilight let out an exasperated sigh, “This is important, Starswirl. I need you to cooperate with me or this will never work.”.
“But I am cooperating,” Starswirl said innocently. On the inside however, he was grinning wide. He would make sure that they made less progress than the griffins’ scientific community.
Twilight shot him a suspicious look. Then she stepped into the circle as well. “Okay, here we go.” Her horn started glowing. There was a sucking sensation in Starswirl's chest, followed by a burst of bright white light.
The first thing Starswirl noticed, was that he was falling. His mane and beard was rippling in the wind. Looking down he saw the ground rushing up to meet him. Being a very intelligent pony, Starswirl did the only reasonable thing a pony in his position could do. He panicked.
“AAAAAAAAHHHH! BOOOOOOLLOOOOOCKS!” he shouted while frantically beating his legs at the air, causing himself to tumble. Which was great, because it brought a startled looking Twilight Sparkle into his field of view. Starswirl latched onto her, as if she was his long lost mother.
With Starswirl’s legs locked around her, Twilight seemed to come out of her daze. She blinked at him. “What?”
“WINGS!” Starswirl shouted, his voice shrill.
“Wings?” Twilight repeated stupidly. “OH! WINGS! RIGHT!” She unfurled her wings and began flapping for all she was worth. As a result, they only crashed somewhat hard into the thornbush below.
Starswirl ended up on his back, with Twilight on top of him. He groaned as a multitude of thorns dug painfully into his back. He opened his eyes, with their noses only inches apart, Twilight's sheepish grin filled his entire vision. “I told you to double check the spell,” he growled between clenched teeth.
Twilight's ears fell back, and she chuckled nervously, “Whoopsie…” She shifted slightly, causing them both to yelp in pain as the thorns dug in deeper.
“How could you fail to consider the possibility that my tower might be gone?!” Starswirl snarled.
Twilight jerked away from his voice, cowering as if it had been a physical blow. “I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have missed something so obvious… I’m so sorry.”
“You’re a dimwit, Miss Sparkle. A plonker of the worst kind, and you will be the death of me. Now get off me, you’re heavy.”
Twilight’s ears went up again, and she glowered at him. “Are you calling me fat?”
“Yes. Yes I am. You ARE fat. Like a pig with wings.”
Twilight’s mouth fell open, her eyes going wide as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard. Then her face contorted with rage. Suddenly, Starswirl had a creeping suspicion that he might have gone too far. “Ehmm... only an average sized pig” he amended quickly. For some reason that only seemed to make the purple alicorn even more angry. Oh Bollocks.
Several minutes later, they were sitting outside the bush with Twilight pulling at a particularly large thorn stuck in Starswirl's back. “You are a very violent princess” Starswirl said.
“You had it coming,” Twilight stated flatly. “Now hold still, this is the last one.” She janked at the thorn and it came loose with yelp from the older unicorn. “Now, repeat what I told you.”
Starswirl gritted his teeth, and forced out the words that had literally been hammered into him, “You are not fat, but rather a product of a more healthy way of life. The ponies of my time are scrawny due to malnourishment and overwork. As such, comparing you to any of them would be pointless.”
Twilight nodded, a satisfied smile on her face. “Now, let’s go and make you some friends.”
“I can hardly wait,” Starswirl murmured under his breath. He turned and looked up at the point, high above, where they had appeared. That had been terrifying, no wonder Clover always screamed when he tossed her out the window. Feeling a bit guilty, he resolved to be nicer to her in the future... or at least not toss her out the window any more.
---------
Clover the Clever sneezed, the dust in the tunnel kept getting in her nose. She rubbed at it with a hoof, if only Uncle Swirly hadn’t found out about the chimney and warded it, she would already be inside. But as it was, she had little choice but to keep digging, the Princess was counting on her, and Clover had no intention of letting her down. She would get inside, and she would destroy it all as per instruction. Clover felt a bit sorry for Uncle Swirly, but he was a big pony, he would get over it… eventually.
She drove her spade into the earth wall, there was a scraping sound as rocks grated against other rocks. Then there was a hoof sized hole connecting the tunnel with Uncle Swirls cellar. Clover smiled a wicked smile. She was in.
---------
It took them three hours to find a road, something that Starswirl was very happy about, though he did his best not to show it. Twilight was getting more and more agitated, as the time dragged by.
“Where is everypony?” she asked.
Starswirl was about respond when his ears picked up the sound of crying in the distance. “Can you hear that?”
Twilight’s ears perked up as well, then she grinned. “Sounds like somepony needs your help!”
Starswirl grimaced, he had secretly been hoping to miss out on this part all together. “Maybe we should let it be... Whoever is crying, probably wants to be left alone...”
“Nonsense!” Twilight said as she began pushing him towards the sound.
The source of the sound was not a pony at all, but rather a strange monster that looked like a blend of a minotaur, a lion, a bat and an albino alligator. Upon seeing them it raised a paw and waved at them, tears still streaming down its face. “Hello ponies!”
Twilight gaped at it. Starswirl, seeing Twilight reaction, decided to just roll with it. If for no other reason but to annoy her. He walked forward and greeted the monster.
“Hello, I am Starswirl the Bearded and this is my assistant Twilight Jiggle.” Starswirl said, smiling inwardly at the outraged intake of breath behind him.
“Cute ponies, Scorpan will call you Swirlyswirl and Jigglejiggle” the monster said, rubbing at his red rimmed eyes.
“If I may ask, why were you crying?” Starswirl asked.
The monster let out a loud moan of anguish, and started crying again. “Scorpan’s brother wants to hurt ponies, but ponies are so cute! Scorpan doesn't know what to do!”
Starswirl tried to exchange a look with Twilight, only to realize too late that her gaze held nothing but fury and promise of retribution. He looked away quickly, before he could get singed. Naming her Twilight Jiggle suddenly seemed like a very stupid thing to have done.
Starswirl turned back to the monster, “Well Scorpan… why don’t you and I become friends? And together, I am sure we can figure something out that will make everypony happy.”
Scorpan sniffed, “Really? Swirlyswirl really thinks so?”
“Suuuurrree,” Starswirl replied, a forced grin on his face. “Why don’t you tell me all about it.” Twilight had at some point walked off and was now punching a tree. Starswirl did his best to ignore her as he sat down next to Scorpan.
The monster took a couple of moments to calm himself before beginning, “Scorpan’s brother Tirek heard that Discord was gone, so he came to Scorpan and said: Scorpan lets go and take all the magic in Equestria. Scorpan thought it sounded like fun, so Scorpan agreed. But then there was cute Ponies everywhere and Scorpan felt bad for taking their magic. And now Scorpan has no idea what to do!”
“Okayyy...” Starswirl said slowly, “Eeehmm, Okay, here is what you do. Go to the big white pony named Celestia… Do you know who I am talking about?”
Scorpan nodded.
“Okay good, Go to her and tell her that you’re a friend of Starswirl the Bearded, and that your brother is up to no good. Then you go home and she will go and talk to Tirek and convince him to stop hurting the cute ponies.”
“Really?” Scorpan asked, his voice filled with hope.
Starswirl grinned at him, “Absolutely.”
---------
Clover stepped into Uncle Swirly’s study and her gaze was immediately drawn to the two crystal orbs that illuminated the room. One was glowing with a dark blue colour mixed with red, the other was white mixed with pink.
Clover frowned, Which one held the alicorn magic? She was pretty sure it was the white one, but she wasn’t completely sure . She shrugged, might as well break both.