• Published 25th Oct 2018
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A 14th Century Supplement in Celestia's Court - Antiquarian



A short compendium of supplementary data, bonus chapters, spinoff chapters, and spoof chapters for A 14th Century Friar in Celestia's Court.

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Lore Expansion - The Fourteen-Leafed Clover

Author's Note:

Sorry to those of you who got excited thinking this was the first of the long-promised EqG/14th C shorts. Soon on that. Really.

The following will constitute a canonical lore expansion for A 14th Century Friar, though it is unlikely to come up except by reference in the story.

“The first Clover the Clever.”

I’ll be honest, when I first wrote in ‘Training Day’ that there was more than one Clover, I didn’t think too much about it. At one point I came across an author (I don’t remember who) who had multiple Clovers in the fic, an idea that I really liked. I just put it in for a little flavor and forgot about it.

Then FanOfMostEverything had the gall to make what was (to me) a humorous and intriguing remark.

The first Clover the Clever? How many were there? Given what we've seen of his study in the comics, I can't help but imagine Star Swirl going through them like Batman through Robins.

Dangit, Fan!

The idea took hold and wouldn’t let go until I wrote it out. What follows below is the canonical backstory of the many Clovers for the three of my readers who care. Blame Fan for this.

(Edit: Why the heck is this featured?)

There were fourteen mares and stallions to bear the name ‘Clover the Clever,’ though only a few had ‘Clover’ as a given name.

The first was an orphaned unicorn stallion, shortly after reaching maturity, became apprentice the then young (and beardless) Starswirl. In those days of wild uncertainty, corruption was rife and warfare an ever-present reality for the disunified tribes. Starswirl, who had little patience for tribal politics, embarked on a quest of advancing the cause of all ponykind through science, cooperation between the races, and magic, a path which brought him and Clover into constant contact with all threeTribes.

In those days, Starswirl was not the bitter stallion he would ultimately become, and rather cheerfully accepted Clover’s help, considering him both friend and research partner. A third role, that of comrade-in-arms, would be added as their work took them increasingly into places wherein corruption dominated and the law was not always the ally of justice. Sometimes legally, sometimes not, the two companions became somewhat accidental heroes, and their fame spread throughout the land.

Clover was never Starswirl’s equal in magical acumen, but he was bright enough, and crafty enough, to keep up, even showing up his mentor and friend now and then. He was also much more personable than the sometimes aloof and distracted Starswirl (to whom social niceties were often an ‘unnecessary delay’).

The adventure that earned Clover the title ‘Clever’ came during a time when Starswirl was incapacitated. A wicked mage had been using a dangerous artifact which could remove the memories of the targets. Clover pursued this criminal to a distant world and succeeded in ensuring that the artifact would never again plague Equestria, though he was unable to apprehend the culprit or destroy the artifact. Ironically, due to the effects of the memory stone, both he and Starswirl forgot about the entire incident until many months later when they came across some of Clover’s notes from that time. Piecing together what had happened, the elated Starswirl praised his partner and dubbed him ‘the Clever.’

During one of their adventures wherein the local captain of the guard (an honorable stallion) was unjustly accused of murder, they were aided in their struggle by the captain’s daughter – a brave and intelligent mare named Firelight. After winning the day and clearing her father’s name, Firelight would join their adventures, proving to be an equal partner.

Though the trio proved to be a formidable force and their friendship ran deep, eventually rifts began to form, mostly due to Starswirl’s obstinacy and single-mindedness. It came to a head when Clover and Firelight announced their intention to marry and settle down, thus leaving Starswirl’s mission behind. Starswirl, for his part, could not comprehend how anypony could forsake the dream of a united ponykind for any reason, even love. Harsh words were exchanged, and Starswirl became estranged from the couple.

That would change when the Minotaur King invaded the Unicorn lands. Unwilling to let their old friend face the threat alone, Clover and Firelight returned to aid him in battle. They won the day, but Clover was mortally wounded. As he lay dying, he and Starswirl finally reconciled.

Starswirl would be forever haunted by the death of his friend and their long separation.

Even in his grief, however, he would not abandon his quest for a better Equestria. After seeing to it that Firelight (who was revealed to be pregnant with Clover’s child) would be taken care of, he threw himself back into his work, becoming even more obsessive and obstinate than before. He retreated to seclusion in hidden towers and laboratories, leaving only for field work.

One day, Starswirl returned to one of these concealed bases to find it being burglarized by a young unicorn stallion who had managed to bypass the magical defenses. Annoyed by the intrusion, but intrigued by the pony’s skill, he captured the burglar and asked his name. The pony gave it as ‘Clover.’

Why Starswirl did what he did next is still a matter of debate. Some say it was projection; some say it was a sense of guilt; some say it was simply that he felt sorry for the colt; some say he was desperate for a companion who could keep up with him. Whatever the case, Starswirl the Bearded took the second Clover the Clever under his proverbial wing.

In many ways, the second Clover proved even more talented a pupil and partner than his predecessor, with a greater knack for combat magic and the creative application thereof.

There were other differences, however. Where the first Clover had been easy-going, generous, and genial, an honest pony who broke the law unwillingly and had an earnest belief in justice, the second Clover was much more cynical. And sly. He was talented at reading and manipulating social cues, yes, but often did so for selfish or vengeful ends.

He also shared Starswirl’s obsessive tendencies. At first, Starswirl saw this as a blessing, as he would not have to worry about his partner stepping off the path. What he failed to consider was the dark turn their path would take.

Clover the Second grew bitter at the slow pace of their mission. He believed that extreme measures were needed to correct the many ills of ponykind and proposed Dark Magic to accomplish their goals. When Starswirl vehemently rejected this course of action, Clover did it in secret, and soon fell into Darkness.

The first overt signs of trouble came when several corrupt nobles of the Unicorn Kingdom were killed. Soon, similar killings happened in the Earth and Pegasi Tribes. All the killings bore the same magical signature. Starswirl, worried that about the prospect of a dark mage of such skill on the loose and fearful that the killings threatened the tenuous peace between the Tribes, made hunting down the perpetrator his sole mission.

He caught the killer in the tunnels beneath Drakestooth Mountain. To his horror, the killer proved to be Clover the Clever.

There were no witnesses to their confrontation. All that is known for certain is that Starswirl emerged after an hour of bitter fighting with the corpse of one he had thought of as a son.

The first Clover’s death had left Starswirl vulnerable. The second left him cold. He came to see attachment as a weakness – a distraction at best and a liability at worst, an impediment to his reasoning. He still labored for a brighter world, but there was little brightness left in him. If a hard pony was needed to safeguard ponykind, then so be it. He would be that hard pony.

Those to whom Starswirl still showed any warmth in those days were precious few: only Firelight and her daughter… the third Clover.

Starswirl’s relationship with the young mare Clover was a difficult one. He was afraid of showing her affection, lest he lose her like her father, and he was hesitant to pass onto her his passion, lest it turn dark like her father’s successor. Instead, their relationship was that of master and student, with his words strict and his lessons hard. He praised little and demanded much. Where the other Clovers had been partners in his work, the third was not. While Starswirl ranged the pony lands far and wide, Clover was assigned to the Court of the Unicorn King, to do what she could to further his vision there.

Clover bore all this with good grace. Her mother had taught her well of the tragedies of Starswirl, and she treated him with such patience that, at times, he would forget his professional distance, and a familial warmth would light his cold face.

Ironically, it was in the Court of the Unicorn King, where Starswirl had sent her in part to keep her from becoming too deeply involved in his work, that she would help bring his dreams to fulfillment. Clover the Clever, against the objections of many prominent nobles, earned the patronage of Princess Platinum and became her personal Mage and Steward. This placed her in a position to journey to the lands that would become Equestria along with the Princess. There, she and the Founders overcame the windigos, forged an alliance between the Three Tribes, ended the long feuds, and founded the great pony nation of Equestria.

When Starswirl heard what she had done, he is said to have wept for joy.

The pair would labor for decades to build a stable Equestria, with Starswirl forming the Pillars to guard its citizens and Clover’s wisdom guiding the government. When Starswirl found young Celestia and Luna and saw in them the potential to bring lasting peace to the newborn realm, it was often Clover who cared for them when he was away.

She was also one of the only ponies in whom the enigmatic Starswirl ever confided his fears, his dreams, and his hopes for the two sisters who would become Equestria’s defenders and leaders in the ages to come. When he vanished, she continued to fight for his dream of a great Equestria.

Clover would not live to see the ascension of Celestia and Luna to the throne, as she passed away not many years after Starswirl and the Pillars disappeared. The hard work of founding a nation and guiding it in its infancy had taken a severe toll on her, and, though the youngest of the Founders, she was one of the first to die, following only Pansey, who gave her life in defense of the innocent during the First Equestria-Griffonstone War.

The legacy of Clover would live on in her daughter, a mare originally named Somber Rain, who was given the title ‘Clover the Clever’ upon her mother’s death. This began the tradition that Archmage of the House of Clover would always take on the name ‘Clover the Clever’ and bear it so long as they held the role.

For generations the Clovers served the throne faithfully, long after Luna’s banishment and into the Golden Age of Equestria. The fourteenth Clover the Clever would give her life in defense of that Golden Age during the Sangbleu Rebellion, dying to kill the rebel leader – a stallion who, tragically, was her own husband.

As the fourteenth Clover had no children, and House Clover had never been blessed with many children, the line is thought to have ended with her, though there is some speculation that the bloodline may have survived through one of the other family relations farther back in the lineage. The most likely would have been the unicorn soldier Dawn Watch, brother to the ninth Clover the Clever, who is known to have had at least two children. However, this has never been proven, and the entire matter remains a matter of lively scholarly debate.