//------------------------------// // Of stars and stripes (part 1) // Story: The Heart of History // by Flubberix //------------------------------// Out of the blue, it started to drizzle. Twilight frantically closed the book, keeping the tome as dry as she could as her brother quickly dashed to the boat, taking both of them to the shore. From there, they galloped towards the castle; before they reached the gates, they felt the rain drops ceasing their assault on their already soaked bodies, and as both of them looked up they noticed Philomena flapping her flaming wings above them and turning the drops into a fine cloud of steam. She even accompanied them for a while as they went inside, before taking flight up through the spiraling center of the stairs. A split second before entering, Twilight cast a glance at the two brave guardians that stood watch at the entrance of the palace: the downpour worsened just after she and her brother managed to get inside, but the two wardens were steadfast in front of the elements. Splattering against their impeccable armor, the rain did not move them a single inch, and Twilight knew all too well that once more the royal palace will be safe in their care. Turning towards her brother, Twilight wondered: - Hey Shining, I think you would look quite nice in one of those armor suits! He was just about to respond when he witnessed his little sister collapsing on the marble floor. Fearing the worst, Shining Armor yelled out at one the guardians inside to kindly request her Majesty's presence as soon as possible.Picking her up with great care, he rushed towards Twilight's bedroom and placed her under the thick blankets. She was feverish, and amidst her incoherent mumbles, Shining Armor caught a glimpse of something about the book he had been reading from. He looked around him to see if he had dropped that somewhere - in the rush he paid little attention to anything else. At the bottom of the stairs, the manuscript was wide open; as if it knew that its presence was requested, it silently flew over to Twilight's bed, hovering just to the left of the ailing pony's reach. The sound of galloping hooves resounded in the hallway as a group of armor clad pegasi flanked Celestia; profiling the shortest-yet-polite bow possible, Shining Armor rushed towards the princess, but she stopped him, lifting up her right hoof. Staring intently at the floating magical book, she turned towards the concerned brother, addressing him with the most serious tone: - Is this the same book that she had been reading the other night, the one she found in Star Swirl the Bearded section of the library? - Yes, your H-Highness, stuttered Shining Armor, shifting its attention from Twilight's bed to her royal presence. Will she be alright? I hope she didn't caught any sort of sickness from being in the rain. Oh, it's my fault for having dragged her outside of the palace, she's always been a little frail when it comes to health, and ... Celestia's out of place smile stopped him dead in the track of his thoughts. She pointed at the tome: it had ceased its hovering and was now firmly between Twilight's hooves. Shining Armor approached the bed, trying to pry the book from his sister, but before Celestia interjected, he felt Twilight's calm breath on his hooves. Reaching for her forehead, he felt that the fever had subsided just as abruptly as it had started. He backed up, somewhat puzzled; and Celestia soft laughter did not clear his confusion. Putting a hoof behind his right ear, she whispered: - We must let her rest now. She really has an adventure in front of her, and we mustn't disturb her. After all, she might just be the single one to finish it, ever since I've brought that book in the library. Behind the closed eyelids, Twilight's eyes admired an unknown scenery. She could not put her hoof on where she had seen a very similar landscape, and while pondering the strange trees and the harsh grass that was sparsely spread on the ground, the thought occurred to her that she did not have the faintest idea how she got here. She turned around but for what appeared to be miles and miles of the same type of terrain the vegetation kept the monotonous - and spiky - appearance, and for all that she could tell there was nopony else around. After her mind ceased its attempts to pinpoint her exact location, Twilight was struck mercilessly by the searing sun that glazed the sky with its golden orb. She knew all too well the dangers of dehydration (all the books she read about pony anatomy seemed to finally yield some reward), so it seemed natural to seek the nearest source of shadow. She hurried as fast as she could, her hooves biting into the dried soil, but the nearest clump of trees seemed just as far as it had been a few seconds back when she sprinted for the relative safety of their shadow. Looking down at her hooves, she noticed that she wasn't moving at all: a field of flowing golden magic kept her in place as her hooves kept on digging ever deeper grooves in the ground. And a voice behind her revealed the source of the spell: - I am most delighted to meet you in person. You are quite gifted, little one. And you are the first one to have reached me at this level! Truly amazing, my fellow unicorn. The pony - speaking in the most flamboyant style Twilight had ever heard to the day - was dressed even stranger than the arid plains in which neither of them seemed to belong. Professing himself as a most generously bearded wise pony adorned with a rather ridiculous looking wizard hat trimmed with small bells and wearing on his back a multicolored cape depicting known and unknown constellations, stars and moons, the unicorn was currently engaged in a most courteous bow. In spite of its length, the beard had not lost the deep mahogany color that it shared with the mane, and its remarkably malachite-like hide was not in the least tarnished by the surrounding dust that emerged from underneath Twilight's hooves. Raising his head and facing her with a stern gaze perpetrated through the fixtures of his eyes tinted in green, he subsided his spell slowly, allowing Twilight some time to cease the furious motion of her hooves. As she touched the ground, she charged towards the odd fellow, knocking him on the ground in a surprise reversal of roles. Looking down on the now laughing unicorn, Twilight spoke in a barely contained burst: - Who are you? Why have you brought me here? I demand that you take me back to Celestia's castle! I'm not afraid of you, you know, even if you are my elder. Hey, what are you doing? She was picked up by a cloud of magic force and kept at a pony's height above the apparent wizard which was now dusting off his outfit. After she ceased her adequately voiced protesting, he looked up at her grinning: - Hmpf, I see that the ponies of your times have grown much bolder than they had been back in my days. You don't seem to recognize my image. Hmmm... then perhaps an introduction would be recommended. But first, let's get to that tree over there, you see? Twilight never got a chance to actually catch a glimpse of the particular tree the wizard was pointing at before they were both transported to that spot. She felt the most welcome drop in temperature as they were both in the shadow of the tree that unicorn mentioned. Pointing at an oddly shaped shadow that was leaning against the white trunk of the arbor, the unicorn spoke: - Our name is Star Swirl, and I am the one that wrote the book you are currently in. A rogue gust of wind scattered the tree's branches for a second, letting through a thin beam of sunlight that illuminated the face of a third unicorn that was sleeping on the ground. It shared the same shades of brown and dark green as the odd looking wizard standing beside him, only the body being reduced at the proper size of a young colt. - Don't worry, he won't be awake for quite a while. And before you ask, yes, you're in a dream. Of sorts. You are a sleeping in your world, that much is a given, but what you are currently seeing and feeling is not a dream. You are being a passive witness to the one memory that I stored in greater detail in this book. It was planned for you or anyone else that could manage to get this far to experience this particular portion of my story in person. There is only so much I can convey through words alone, and this segment of my life was the one that got imprinted the best in my mind. Now, if you have any questions, I might answer them. Twilight took a closer look at her surroundings, and a vague idea of her whereabouts started to coalesce. It was about half an year before this incident that she found a pair of interesting books about the voyages of adventurous ponies in far-away lands, the second book in particular dealing with the adventures of the writer in the land of the distant land of ponies' cousins, the gazelles and the zebras. And what that particular explorer described matched to a tee what she was seeing all around her. Intrigued by the possibility, she replied: - Is this area actually real? As in, does the native land of the zebras looks like this in the real world? I always thought those descriptions to be a bit ... over-dramatized, to be honest. Browsing its surroundings, the wizard remarked: - Now that you mention it, it isn't exactly as I remember it. But then again that's because your mind already had a preconceived idea of what this land must have looked like, way before you landed in this page of my memories. You helped in adding quite a great deal of detail to it, and I am quite excited at the prospect of seeing what you'll make of the rest that follows. I did not design this memory or the world inside of it to be rigid, and I hope you won't take it as an offense but I am relieved to see that the shape of your mind was not dull as to keep the background as plain as it was originally designed. Remember, this serves just as a preview for the real adventure that will be initiated just as the edge of that will reach my younger self. Twilight followed the invisible trail that started from Star Swirl's lifted hoof up to the horizon where a gathering of storm clouds made its appearance. They were still pretty far away, but the winds started to pick up. In the distance, the storm made its presence heard through the brief flashes of thunders, followed moments after by the rolling sounds of echoing thunder. The wizard laughed: - I still think that I have somewhat retained a grievance towards the moisture of the rain. I was awakened rather rudely by it, if I am to consider the clouds and their pouring waters as sentient beings. But at least I now know that the natives had a much better understanding of their nature, of which I was soon to be aware. But let's not dawdle: there comes the river! Beyond the edge of the shadow, the once dry riverbed was once more swollen with the water descended from the sky above. And a scared young pony had just awakened from his slumber.