Astra (Story 1/9)

by Spikey_Wikey

Chapter 10: An Ordinary Visit

Chapter 10: An Ordinary Visit

Polaris shivered as the freezing cave air continuously bit at him. His eyes were focused forward at the candle Starswirl was levitating, the flickering light dancing off the cave walls, briefly illuminating them before they were once again shrouded in darkness as the two kept walking.

“Use a warming spell if you’re so cold,” Starswirl remarked.

“No.”

Starswirl glanced back at him. “It doesn’t matter. You know that, right?”

“It does right now,” Polaris said through gritted teeth. “Magic is only to be used for purposes that-”

“I know all that already. And it doesn’t matter.”

Polaris looked at the floor, doing his best to control his shivering. “Why not?”

Starswirl stopped walking. “We’re here.”

In front of him, Polaris could see the same path they had been following, only now the cave walls that had surrounded them were missing, opening the tunnel up into a huge, expansive cavern. Polaris looked around, noticing now that they were standing on what appeared to be a natural rock bridge which stretched far in front of them into darkness.

Starswirl cast a spell on the candle, brightening its light significantly, and Polaris saw just how massive the cavern was. Above and below them, more bridges ran across the round cavern, leading off into other tunnels. Paths had been carved into the walls as well, leading these different bridges to each other and to large, hollowed-out sections of the walls that were covered with small holes, almost like doorways.

“Are these…”

Starswirl nodded. “I believe at one point they were, yes.”

Polaris took a few steps forward, pausing as his hoof met something on the ground that didn’t feel like rock. He looked down at the wooden sign he’d stepped on.

The symbols seemed familiar. He was almost sure he’d seen them in a book somewhere…

“How many lived here?”

Starswirl had crossed the bridge and now stood waiting at the entrance to another tunnel. “I have no idea,” he answered. “There’s no telling how deep this cavern actually is.” He then gestured to the tunnel. “This way.”

“Where are we going?” Polaris asked as he caught up to him. Starswirl had blurted out only a few words to him when he showed up at his door before teleporting them to the entrance of the first cave.

Starswirl turned and entered the new tunnel, and Polaris quickly followed him.

“I found a solution to your problem.”

Though he knew it would probably be pointless to ask, he decided to try anyway.

“What problem?”

***

As the door shut behind him, it suddenly occurred to Polaris that a rock may not have been the best object to try and replicate the spell on. After all, the feather and scale he’d used previously had both come from living creatures, or so he assumed. He sat down at the kitchen table and rested his head in his hooves. Perhaps it would do him better to try something like a leaf or flower petal.

‘Maybe it has to work in combination with something else, too.’

In retrospect, casting that spell on just one object probably hadn’t been the best idea either, since there wasn’t a reason to think two objects weren’t required.

‘I have to use plants, though.’ Animals were completely out of the question, as were trees; he’d used more than enough of those already.

“Plants it is then,” he muttered as he looked out the window into the forest.

***

The tunnel was unbelievably long and wound in all sorts of twisted directions, though Polaris could say for certain that they were descending. They had been walking for what felt like at least a few hours, but the air around them seemed to grow warmer and heavier, certainly not what Polaris would expect. To call this a cave was wrong. It was a tube; a tube made out of rock that twisted and turned, narrowed and widened.

“Why couldn’t you teleport us to wherever it is we’re going?”

“Too risky.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll find out.”

Polaris decided to drop it and change subjects.

“You know, before you showed up, I was about to leave to look for my sister.”

Starswirl sighed. “You need to be careful with what you tell me, Polaris.”

“What was wrong with that?”

“What if I…ah, never mind. Do you know why I’m here?”

“Well…no, not really. It’s just sort of become a thing.”

“Become…are you implying we’re going to meet again? What did I just say about telling me certain things?”

“But it doesn’t matter. Nothing’s going to change. Events will still play out as they were always meant to.”

“What proof do you have of that?”

“I…look, I just know, okay?”

Starswirl sighed and rolled his eyes. “Well, trust me. Time is dangerous when meddled with. It’s easy to cause changes without even meaning to. I could take you to see your sister right now, but that could have dire consequences on the timeline.”

Polaris thought about this for a moment. Starswirl was right. If he’d already met Equina, then that meant he knew where she lived, and he could just teleport him there. He needn’t even look for her.

“Take me to see her.”

“What did I just say? Do you listen at all?”

‘You think it’s bad now, wait until we meet in the Empire.’ “If you take me to see her, and it’s not meant to happen, the timeline will correct itself. Things will just…happen that will prevent any conflicts.”

“I’m not taking your word for it,” Starswirl said stubbornly. “Besides, even if that were true, who’s to say my unwillingness to take you isn’t itself the necessary correction?”

“But what if I’m supposed to meet up with her?”

“Then I suppose you will in due time, but I can assure you, I lent no helping hoof in that endeavor, nor did either of you inform me of it. Anyway, my question to you wasn’t regarding my showing up at your door today.”

“If you’re asking if I know why you’re even bothering with me, then I have no idea.”

“Not specifically with you. You see, I’m trying to investigate the disappearance of the Crystal Empire.”

This surprised Polaris a little. As far as he was aware, no civilizations outside of the Empire even knew of its existence, and any recorded history or account of it was now surely lost.

“How do you know about it?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he said, holding up a hoof as Polaris opened his mouth to respond. “Let me finish. I can’t tell you that because I already have, and telling you too early could-”

“-affect the timeline. Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Polaris said, rolling his eyes.

Starswirl stared at him. “It’s going to be a while before you find out.”

“Fine.”

“A very long while.”

“I get it. It’s the first time you meet me. I can’t believe you used to be this bad at giving hints.”

Starswirl scowled at him.

***

Grass and leaves crunched under Polaris’ hooves as he traipsed amongst the trees occasionally ducking under low hanging branches. He’d been walking for a couple of hours, trying to find interesting plants or flowers to use, anything that wasn’t grass or weeds.

His rear left hoof suddenly stepped on something that didn’t quite feel like the ground, and he turned around to inspect it. It seemed he’d squished a low-flying butterfly and killed it. For a moment he stood there, wiping it off of his hoof, but then he noticed its wings had detached from its body.

‘Well,’ he reasoned. ‘It’s not like I intentionally killed it, and the wings may work with spell, too,’ and with that, he stored the two wings away with magic and kept walking.

After only a few more minutes, he came to a clearing. It was nearly perfectly circular in shape, and on the ground was a very distinct blanket of leaves that extended up and formed a mass on the side of the clearing opposite him. Upon closer inspection, Polaris realized that he’d found a mass of vines. The leaves that comprised this large clearing were all attached to interwoven stems, reaching their way outward, and Polaris noticed that a few of them were touching the trees next to him.

Curious, he made his way to the other side where the giant mass was, intending only to take a few leaves. As he reached out his hooves, he got a strange feeling. Standing in the middle of this giant plant, his hooves wedged into its leaves, felt almost eerie. As quickly as he could, he stored a few leaves away and turned to go back the way he’d come.

It would be quite some time before Polaris would realize what he’d tripped on, but in that moment he didn’t much care. All he cared about was standing up, pulling his body out of the disgusting, creepy vine he’d foolishly walked into, and returning to his home. He scraped a large splinter out of his hoof onto the ground and teleported back to his house.

***

They continued on for a few more minutes until the tunnel finally opened up into another cavern. This one, however, was smaller than the previous one; the ceiling wasn’t too far above their heads. Around them were more rock bridges, but there were no house-like structures in the walls. Instead, these bridges led to circular platforms in the middle of the cavern, all of which were surrounded by what seemed to be some sort of magical aura.

Polaris looked down as they began walking to one of these platforms and saw just how deep the cavern went. Starswirl’s candle light couldn’t even illuminate all of it, even shining as bright as it was after the spell he’d cast. He conjured up a rock that he’d stored away and dropped it into the abyss. Starswirl kept walking towards one of the platforms while Polaris listened. After about two minutes, he gave up. Either there was no bottom or it was simply so far down he couldn’t hear it.

He trotted over to Starswirl. “So how come we couldn’t just teleport in here?” he asked.

“Look at what we’re standing on.” Starswirl gestured with his hoof to the walkways. “Do you know how dangerous it could have been for me to try and teleport us in here when there’s a much higher chance we would have fallen to our deaths?”

Polaris peered into the dark pit again and nodded. “So, why are we here?”

Starswirl had begun closely examining the magical aura. Polaris waited for a few moments for him to say something about it, but as the minutes ticked by he grew more and more impatient.

“Why are we here?” he repeated, a tone of annoyance in his voice. “What problem were you talking about?”

Starswirl seemed to have just remember Polaris was there. “I can’t figure this out,” he said finally.

“What does that mean? Do is it even supposed to be?”

“It’s a jail cell. That much I know for sure.” Starswirl answered. “But I can’t figure out how this magic was created.”

“Why did that tunnel take us here? Why is it connected? Is this where they kept their criminals?”

“No.” Starswirl had begun rummaging through his saddlebag, evidently searching for something. “At least, I don’t think so. I believe it was intentionally carved to lead here, but I don’t think they knew about this place before digging.”

He gave a slight sigh of irritation, rolled his eyes, and performed a spell. Polaris recognized it as the storage removal spell; he’d used it many times. He also recognized the object Starswirl had evidently stored, though he couldn’t believe he was actually seeing it again.

***

‘Maybe they’re just not compatible.’

Polaris had been attempting for at least an hour to recreate the spell, but all he’d managed to do was make the leaf float a little bit. ‘Is this whole spell just complete trial and error?’

If that was the case, there was no telling how long it would take him to figure out another working combination, if it even happened at all. Frustrated, he sat down at the table and rested his head in his hooves.

‘It was different the first time I used the spell.’

He’d been severely injured and both mentally and physically exhausted. The spell had simply happened by accident.

‘I remembered something, too. That time I pulled a flower up.’

Why had he remembered that? His mother had taught him a lesson about love when he’d picked a flower out of his father’s garden, and then…

‘When I came to, I basically just repeated what I’d learned to Sombra, and then the spell cast itself. Maybe it had something to do with mom’s lesson?’

And as if on cue, another memory surfaced, this time of his father. It was quite an old one; Polaris couldn’t have been more than six years old.

His father was in the garden, kneeling down in the grass. There was a small bowl next to him.

“Are those seeds, dad?” Polaris asked as he approached him.

“They certainly are,” Octan answered. “And one day they’re going to be flowers.”

“But they’re just seeds!” Polaris said, sitting down next to his father. “How can they turn into flowers?”

“It takes time, Polaris,” his father chuckled. “You have to be patient and care for the seeds as they grow. They’re small right now, but they have a lot of potential.”

“What’s that mean?”

Octan made a hole in the dirt in front of them and placed a seed inside. “It’s everything something could be. For example, before your sister got her cutie mark it could have been anything, but now-”

“Now it’s the sun and moon!”

“Exactly.”

“But dad, you know the seeds will grow into flowers. So how is that the same?”

“I knew I was going to have a son, too. But I didn’t know how smart he’d turn out to be,” Octan said, rustling his son’s mane.

“Dad, stoooop.” Polaris batted his father’s hoof away and started to fix it.

Octan chuckled again and returned to making holes in the soil. “Anyway, even though I know what kind of flowers will grow, I won’t know exactly what they’ll look like or how tall they’ll be. That’s what I love about this the most.”

Polaris sat back in his chair, staring at the leaf and wing. He brough a hoof up to the top of his head and smoothed his mane. How could potential relate to his mother’s lesson?

‘That one was about appreciation,’ he remembered. ‘That love wasn’t about possessing something, but about appreciating it.’

“I don’t know what to do,” he muttered. “Are they even supposed to relate to each other?” He tried focusing more on the memory of his father.

“He liked the potential the seeds had...”

‘He appreciated the potential the seeds had.’

Appreciation of potential…

“But what could a leaf and butterfly wing possibly turn into?”

‘What did a scale and feather turn into?’

“The first time I didn’t even know about the spell. How…”

Polaris ran a hoof through his mane. His father had told him about a spell his mother had used once…

“You know how to teleport?”

His father smiled. “Your mother taught me. She knew how to do it months and months before she met me…even told me she did it once accidentally as a filly when she got lost in the woods.”

Accidentally casting a spell she didn’t know because she was in trouble; the same thing must have happened to him on top of the castle tower. Polaris stood up as his horn had started to glow a faint golden color. The leaf and wing had started to levitate as well.

“A simple scale and feather turned into a flying, fire-breathing beast,” he reasoned. “Who knows what these things can do?”

A bright beam of gold shot out of his horn and hit the leaf and wing. They rose higher off the table, spinning all the while around each other.

“What will you become?” Polaris asked loudly. “What will you be?”

His horn exploded, the beam of magic growing bigger, and he took a few steps back to keep his balance. The leaf and wing spun faster and faster as the spell engulfed them until finally they exploded in a bright white light.

Polaris uncovered his eyes, excited but a little worn out. He’d been thrown onto the ground from the force of the spell. He picked himself up and glanced across the table.

A tiny red ball was floating above it, using a pair of wings to keep itself in the air. He moved around the table to get closer to it. It certainly hadn’t been what he expected.

‘Although if it had turned into something huge, it would have destroyed my house.’ He made a mental note to only use this spell outside from now on.

The creature turned around to face him. Its eyes were enormous, and now that he was closer, he could see that it had a small mouth and four tiny legs underneath it, but there was nothing else to it. It was simply a flying ball with a face and legs.

“What are you?” he asked, sitting down again. “Are you a bug of some sort?”

It responded by flying slowly across the room to one of the cabinets.

“There’s some apples and berries in there. Are you hungry?”

The creature turned to him and nodded, a pout on its face.

Polaris smiled and stood up. “Alright, then. Let’s get you something to eat.”

***

“Where did you get that?” Polaris asked as he took a step back, instantly recognizing the size and shape of the creature that had eaten all of his food and then flown away.

“I found it,” Starswirl replied. “Or, more accurately, I found them.”

“Them? There are more?”

Starswirl had pulled out a tiny, red, four-legged ball and was now floating it over to the magical aura. It was squirming, around, trying to escape, but of course it couldn’t. Polaris watched Starswirl pass it through to the other side, and the spell holding it in the air instantly broke. It tried to escape the aura, but it couldn’t, and the two ponies watched as it desperately flew into it over and over again.

Then, something strange happened. The little ball began to cough. At first Polaris thought it had simply become winded, but its coughs slowly turned into very violent hacking and suddenly out of its mouth came what looked like an orange ball of wet hair, the exact same size as the other one.

“There’s no way,” Polaris said, but he watched in awe and disgust as the orange ball slowly grew a set of four small legs, a pair of wings, eyes, and a mouth.

“You are here, Polaris,” Starswirl said as he turned around to him. “To learn a lesson. What did you use to make them?"

Polaris watched as the pair of them started flying repeatedly against the magical wall, remembering what the first one he’d seen had done. “How do you know it was me?”

“You have a very guilty look on your face right now.”

Polaris looked away. “Is this the problem you mentioned earlier?”

“This is just the start,” Starswirl said grimly. “Now, what did you use?”

“Just the start?”

“Polaris!”

“A vine leaf and a butterfly wing!”

“What kind of vine?”

Polaris looked at him now. “I…I don’t know. There was just this giant mass of vines in the forest, so I took a leaf.”

“Why not a tree leaf?” Starswirl stepped closer to him.

“I’ve taken enough trees. I had to cut down a bunch of them just to build my house and furniture, and I had to do it with magic.”

Starswirl rolled his eyes.

“So taking a tree leaf is off limits, but killing a butterfly for its wing is alright?”

“I stepped on it accidentally on my way through the forest,” Polaris shot back. “I figured I could at least try to put it to good use.”

“Oh, yes, excellent use, it seems,” Starswirl retorted, gesturing to the magical wall. “There are hundreds of these things now! I watched one eat at least twenty trees’ worth of apples!”

“I…I didn’t think…why would a vine leaf and butterfly wing make something like this? It’s like they’re a parasite or something. They just eat and turn the food into new ones! It must have been the vine leaf. But what…”

He thought about exactly what had happened. There was a clearing completely covered with vines and then a mass of them on the other side, creating a sort of wall. He’d picked off a leaf, and then tripped when he’d turned around.

“I pulled a splinter out of my hoof…” he muttered as he looked down, and then he realized what he’d tripped on.

“It was a tree root.”

“What?”

“When I turned to leave, I tripped over a tree root. The vines were covering trees.”

Starswirl seemed to have understood as well. “The vines stole the trees’ sunlight and killed them.”

“They were parasitic. I didn’t even realize…” He looked up at the parasites. “How are we going to catch them?”

“At this point, Polaris, it’s probably not even worth it. If a single one is missed, it’ll just repopulate again.”

“And these two?” Polaris nodded toward the jail cell.

“I think they’ll die without a food source, but I can’t be certain. They don’t seem to be able to get out.” He stepped past Polaris back towards the tunnel. “I brought you here to show you this place. I don’t know if you’re going to continue experimenting with that spell of yours-”

“It’s probably not even worth asking you how you know about that.”

“-but if things go wrong, I think this place will suffice to ensure your…experiments don’t run rampant all over the place,” Starswirl finished, his eyes closed in frustration.

“So I just force them into these cells and leave them to die?” Polaris asked incredulously.

“Or you can stop using the spell,” Starswirl said loudly. “Or ignore my advice altogether! Who knows? Maybe your next masterpiece will shoot acid out of its mouth and turn-”

A low, quiet rumble interrupted him. In fact, during the few short moments of silence that followed, Polaris was almost thankful it shut Starswirl up. That was short lived, however, as the rumble kept growing in volume, and both ponies were instantly able to recognize it as a growl. It didn’t last very long, but the moment it was over, it was replaced by the very faint sounds of crumbling rock.

***

Polaris opened the cupboard and took out a few small blueberries. From the size of the creature, he reasoned it couldn’t possibly eat more than two. He placed them on the counter, and it flew down to land next to his hoof.

“There you go,” he said as he took out an apple for himself. He watched as it sniffed at the berries, expecting it to start nibbling on them. Instead, it opened its mouth as wide as it could and swallowed them whole. Polaris stared at it, his eyes widened in surprise.

“I guess you were really hungry, huh?” It stared up at him and made a small chirping noise. Then it flew over to apple and swallowed that as well.

‘How did it do that? It’s smaller than the apple!’

“Hey now,” he said, a little uneasy. “Don’t eat too much.”

It smiled at him and then flew over to the window. “Where are you going?” he asked, half hoping it would stick around.
But the little ball didn’t care about company. It gave one last chirp and flew out the window.

“Come back!” he called after it, but it kept going until it faded completely from his view.

Even if it seemed to eat a lot, he would have enjoyed the company.

***

Starswirl looked at Polaris, and Polaris looked back at him. The growl came again, this time much louder, and the sounds of falling rock were soon after accompanied by those of shuffling and scraping.

“It’s climbing,” Polaris whispered once it had stopped again.

Starswirl nodded and held his hoof out. “Let’s go, shall we?”

Polaris took his hoof and Starswirl began to cast the spell to get them out of there. His horn sparked a few times and then…nothing.

“What’s wrong? Do the spell!” Polaris hissed frantically as another, even louder growl rumbled through the cavern, loosening some small rocks above their heads. The scraping had turned into thuds; it was attached to the wall and climbing steadily.

“I can’t,” Starswirl said shaking his head. There was a definitive note of panic in his voice.

“What? Why?”

“I can’t cast any spells.”

Polaris tried it himself, only to get the same results. He looked around quickly. The entrance was right behind them; all they had to do was walk towards it. He gestured to it, and Starswirl nodded.

“We have to walk.”

“What? Why?”

Another shower of rocks and dust hit them. Starswirl rubbed his eyes. “Running might make things worse.”

The climbing sounds had grown quicker and louder now, bouncing madly around the cavern.

“Let’s go then,” Polaris said, and they began walking towards the tunnel. He did his best to just focus on walking next to Starswirl, doing his best to ignore the crescendo of climbing sounds. They were nearly at the entrance now.

Then suddenly the sounds stopped. For a half a second Polaris felt relieved, but that relief soon turned to dread as he heard the loudest growl of all right behind him. He and Starswirl turned around at the same moment.

Towering over them on the rocky walkway was a giant, black, three-headed dog. Polaris couldn’t believe it even fit on the narrow path. Its red eyes glowed bright in the darkness, and saliva dripped from its three mouths. The entrance was right behind them; all they had to do was keep backing up. Step by step they kept going. Polaris’ chest hurt from how fast his heart was beating, and what happened next certainly didn’t help.

The dog suddenly stood up on its hind legs and barked loudly, causing more rocks to fall from the ceiling and land uncomfortably close to them. Polaris and Starswirl nearly tripped over each other, quickening their pace, not daring to turn their backs as they entered the tunnel.
They were inside now. The dog for some reason was still on its hind legs, its heads curiously tilted to the side. It barked again, and more rocks fell, completely sealing the tunnel shut. The two ponies were now shrouded in darkness.

“Do you have your candle?” Polaris asked, his voice shaking considerably.

Starswirl wasn’t doing much better. “I…I think I left it…I dropped it…”

Polaris shivered. “Well, at least there’s only one path. We can probably just-”

He stopped short as a light source lit up the tunnel. It was coming from Starswirl.

“I guess I can get us out of here now.”

“Guess so.”

From behind the wall of rocks, they heard another low growl.

“Polaris…I’m not sure how much further back I need to go, but I need to get to the Crystal Empire.”

“Why are you so interested in it, anyway?”

“Research. History,” Starswirl huffed. “That place has a bigger historical impact than you might think, and it’s wrong that such a small amount of it was documented.”

“I saw a lot while I was there.”

“I assure you, whatever happened to you, whatever you witnessed was merely the tip of an enormous iceberg.”

“So you’re not looking to change anything, then. Just observe and record things as they happen?”

“That’s correct.”

Polaris studied him for a few moments. Something about this was bothering him. The Starswirl he’d initially met had seemed determined to try and change the set course of events, though Polaris of course knew that in doing so the two of them actually helped cause them. What could have happened between now and then?

‘My mother.’ Yes, that had to be it. Starswirl didn’t know his mother was one of the founders of the Crystal Empire or that Sombra had killed her. He must have changed his motives once he’d found that out.

“I can take you there.”

“What? How?”

“Your teleportation spell works if either one of us thinks of a location.”

Starswirl tilted his head. “How do you know this?”

Polaris just looked at him. “Remember how I accidentally mentioned that you’re gonna meet me again?”

“Ah.”

“Now, the Empire won’t be there once we arrive, so you’ll have to travel back in time.”

Starswirl nodded. “How long?”

Polaris shrugged, enjoying being the one on the other end of the questions for a change. “I really don’t know. It feels like it’s been about four months, but that I can’t be sure because there should be snow everywhere, unless I’m not living in that kind of climate.” He shook his head. “Either way, I’ve been here about four months.”

“Alright. How will you get back?”

“I can teleport.”

“Already? How?”

Polaris sighed. “You do realize you’ll find all this out anyway, right?”

“Well…yes, I suppose that’s true.” He held out his hoof. “Shall we, then?”

“One more thing,” Polaris answered. “I told you before I was going to look for my sister, but to do that I can’t be at my home all the time.”

Starswirl opened his mouth, but Polaris held his hoof up.

“Just…let me finish. I want to look for her. I want to find her. Can I do that, or do I have to worry about you dropping by my house randomly from here on out?”

Starswirl looked down and scraped his hoof across the ground a few times. After a few moments, he let out a huff. “No.”

“Thank you.” Polaris nodded and took his hoof. “Now, I’m gonna think about where I lived, and all you have to do is cast the spell.”

“Alright.”

Polaris let his mind focus on his home. He pictured his house sitting on one of the many streets leading to the center of the Empire, his yard, with his father’s garden in it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Starswirl’s horn light up.

As his mind wandered further, his focus turned into memories. He remembered the day his mother took him to the park and gently hovered him over the slide as he went down, the day his father died, the day he was finally reunited with his sister and they sat in the living room to catch up.

Starswirl finished the spell, and they vanished.

***

Polaris grew frustrated as he tried fruitlessly to shove another book into his saddlebag. Not even a day had gone by since that creature had flown out of his window, but he’d decided to look for his sister, even though he had no idea where to start. He’d spent the rest of the previous evening practicing teleporting around his small home and reading the one book he could find about navigation and map charting.

A knock on the door caused him to roll his eyes. ‘Perfect timing,’ he thought, removing three apples from the saddlebag to try and make more room. ‘The first of many random visits from Starswirl the Bearded, only now I’ll know way more than him.’

The book suddenly slipped out of his grasp and knocked the apples askew. Annoyed, he turned around and walked over to the door, halfheartedly kicking an apple that had landed there. He opened the door to let Starswirl in.

“You should’ve told me in advance you were coming,” he said as he stepped back to invite him in. “I would’ve prepared a meal for us.”

“I need to show you something,” Starswirl replied as he grabbed his hoof, and before Polaris could even respond, Starswirl teleported them.

***

“Mom says dinner’s ready!” Equina called out from the back door. “Oh! Are you planting more seeds, daddy?”

“Your brother was helping me,” Octan replied, smiling as she ran over to join them.

She looked at Polaris. “Your mane is messed up,” she said matter-of-factly.

He scowled at her as he tried to fix it again.

“What happened to your other flowers, daddy?” she asked, sitting so close to her younger brother she nearly sat on him.

Her father sighed. “They just wouldn’t grow properly. Sometimes it happens that way.”

“But these seeds have…um…potrensil, right dad?” Polaris interjected.

“Po-ten-tial,” Octan corrected. “The other seeds did, too, but they just weren’t meant to be I guess.”

“Wasn’t there a spell you could’ve tried?” Equina asked.

“Probably, but that’s not a very good use of magic.”

“Why not?”

“It’s crude,” he answered, covering up the final hole. “Magic isn’t a gardening tool.”

“What’s ‘crude’ mean?” Polaris chorused.

“Well, it’s sort of…”

His voice faded away as Equina began daydreaming. Time seemed to slow down around her. Puzzled, she slowly looked around. A small blue alicorn was sitting next to her. She jumped back in surprise and hit her head.

“Ow,” she muttered as she blinked her eyes open. Luna was sleeping next to her, nestled under the blankets. She stared at her daughter for a few moments. It wasn’t all that strange to see her in a dream, but this had been different. This time it had felt more real, almost invasive. Luna hadn’t been dreamt up by her own mind; it was more like she’d actually somehow willed herself inside.

Equina shook her head. It was probably nothing. Gently, she picked Luna up and carried her back to her room, making sure not to wake her sisters. Starswirl had provided a room for each of them, but Equina thought they’d be lonely that way, so she’d turned the other two rooms into playrooms.

She placed Luna gently in her bed and went back to sleep.

Author's Note:

...
ta-da