Tomb of Magic

by Ice Star


Prologue: With My Friends

Once upon a time, there was a remarkable unicorn in the Pre-Equestrian Era. Not much is known about him, most shreds of information being unsourced, or uncredited legend that is still passed around in modern Equestria today. What is known about him relies heavily on the aforementioned element of lore and legend that most ponies use to characterize somepony who is an important historical figure.

It makes me feel a little annoyed sometimes, that ponies would not bother to separate fact and folklore - Celestia herself has said so little about him, and she knew him! - but a lot of that was from when I was the student of the Princess, and I was given more and more advanced history books and magical texts... he was kind of my celebrity crush, a mysterious magical scholar that I liked to imagine was a lot like me... and maybe just a little bit like ponies said he was, in legends.

But there is knowledge that remains undisputed among all modern Equestrian scholars, and those were hard to narrow down to the point where nopony would dispute them. This information is however, a poor substitute for real academic knowledge that I think would be best shared with everypony immediately, after Princess Celestia examines any finds, of course. All of the most celebrated scholars in Equestrian history have presented the sun goddess with their findings before anypony can see them - it's tradition, and a proud one that I'm willing to uphold too, whether I'm a princess, student, or honorary mage.

The list of things known about this great wizard is very short compared to what could be known - I believe that everypony should know everything about great figures like him, past or present, down to the littlest detail. Secrets are just mysteries that are too stubborn and should be solved!

The list, as explained by myself, Princess Twilight Sparkle:

A few spells, mostly dealing with conjuration can be traced back to him with although this takes much work due to his… anonymity in areas. The Unicorn Tribe had the best kept records of anypony, despite their backwards and antisocial ways, yet no records that even give a passing mention to him are noted. This is odd because Starswirl was alive at the time of Equestria's founding - when this nation was a triarchy and before Discord - so it would have been strange for somepony with his occupation - a court-supported wizard - to not be mentioned until adulthood. There's no telling where he was educated - anypony who was great, always had great teachers. These are the valuable social bonds that help us improve as ponies!

He had multiple apprentices. This information is cited in his journals, or what fragments are known to exist and have had their translations published with Celestia's Seal - what every scholar dreams of! This is yet another mystery involving Starswirl. Why would somepony who had such great bonds as that of student and teacher, let them just fade to obscurity? He always mentioned having 'apprentices' over 'an apprentice' in every record of his visits to the court. Shedding light on this would be a great deed!

Clover the Clever is the only known, confirmed, and identified apprentice. Nopony really knows too much about what she looked like either… this is sad, since she eventually went on to accompany Princess Platinum when First Equestria was founded. There isn't a single portrait of her, but a few journal entries from court nobles mention something about her being green. Because of the condition of these journals, and the poor writing it is hard to tell if she wore green - which would be unlikely since it was expensive to dye anything - or had a physical feature that was green - this is less likely since even in the present day, green is not a common color for ponies to be.

On a side note: Clover was wise in strange ways, and it is because of her that we have many small sayings and parables. They may have fallen out of favor today, since the sayings of Princess Celestia have become more relevant over the years, but Clover was the first to discuss the vice of pride with modest brevity that was expanded upon in later collections of her homely sayings and the wisdom of Princess Celestia. The concept of social joys best expressed in Princess Celestia's words - 'Happiness is in other ponies' - were first put forth through the wisdom of Clover the Clever.

There is a definite year of birth for Starswirl! This is fantastic because without his own knowledge of his age - suggesting a bit of higher birth - and the word of a few of the surviving records that were brought to Equestria during the Tribal Exodus to the south, many theories about Starswirl would not exist and others would be incomplete.

He had a connection of some kind with Celestia and Luna. While the Princesses themselves are arguably even more mysterious - as are many of the gods - Starswirl's connection with the Princesses is unknown. They are not even mentioned to have existed in the time of the Tribes, but I have been told by Celestia herself that she did know him, even if records of Princess Celestia didn't appear until First Equestria. Much of the knowledge of Princess Luna's life before the first Longest Night have been lost. In the early reign of Princess Celestia, numerous fires damaged the various archives of the day.

Only one of his possible hundreds of journals survived, all others are in the form of scraps. This is something I want to change so badly! Knowledge of Starswirl is so scarce and I think that he is a pony everypony should know about because he was a hero, just like Princess Celestia, the founders, and my friends and I.

He is the one and only pony to venture outside of the tundra-like tribe lands and live! His presence was recorded by the ponies of Maretonia in their official hall of records, which they have kindly shared some of with Equestria... the southern lands are very wary of sharing knowledge with Equestria, despite us being the friendliest kingdom and Princess Celestia the most caring of rulers... if only they could see her smile! Although Starswirl never released knowledge of other lands to the Tribes - this was during the second-to-last era of the Pre- Equestrian age; called the Dark Ages -
the boat he used can be seen in one of Canterlot`s many museums. I used to go there with Cadance all the time. While the Tribes thought that they were the only place in the world and were vastly uneducated, their boats were quite hardy since they had to be able to handle a couple hits from ice, at the very least. Magic was not something the Tribes were fond of, so wizards like Starswirl were even rarer than we'd think, since we live in an era of magic and harmony!

A few other obvious facts remain wholly undisputed: he was a male unicorn characterized for a long beard and habit of wearing star-stitched robes. This last detail supports many proposals that he was of high birth, since most ponies didn't know what stars were outside of the Unicorn Tribe. The Unicorn Court also recorded him having a white mane and tail along with the star swirl cutie mark found upon his remaining journal

He had no offspring and lived on the outskirts - but in a debated location - of the Tribe Lands, which is now frozen over by Windigos. This has made any possible attempts to research the death trap of a land that is under the orders of the princess impossible, especially since studying the past and why the Equestria we live in is so much better isn't a popular career choice or talent.

According to a curious - and unconfirmed - legend he was periwinkle in color. Some storybooks favor this description of him, while others favor a white or gray Starswirl. I always subscribed to the white Starswirl theory, and that is the most common one. I find that the simpler and more agreed upon something is, the more truth there is too it as well. It's also hard to imagine anypony as great a teacher as Starswirl must've been not looking at least a little bit like Princess Celestia.

Nothing else is known about him to this day. Starswirl the Bearded fairs are lacking, and mostly present the legend side of him, with a few facts and real artifacts. As fun as they are, these fairs that only request authorization to borrow the priceless and few artifacts of Starswirl, are largely - and arguably - a conspiracy.

Starswirl the Bearded was real, and with the help of my five friends, I, Twilight Sparkle, will venture out there into the Arctic wastes of the north with their help and find his lost works, records, and maybe even his stronghold!