You are the Princess's trusted mage and student. You also have no idea where you are.
You are the Princess's trusted mage and student. You also have no idea where you are.
A choose-your-own-adventure!
-------------------------------- ** This story was written when I was 16, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **
The castle is particularly drafty today. You pull the hem of your nightgown closer around your neck, checking the sundial on the windowsill as you do so. It's very dimly lit, but the shadow falls directly on the I scratched in white chalk on the outside ring. You frown at it. Was that the number you lined up wrong? Nobody made sundials for the night, ever since...
Your ears press back, and you bite your lip. Even thinking of her recent betrayal makes you feel like a threat to the Princess. You listen for a moment, but nopony seems to have detected your treasonous thoughts. Even so, when you glance up at the moon - comparing it against your horn when you hold your head level to the scales on your desk, huh, it is one in the morning, what number was the one that needed fixing? - and see the craters making up her dark muzzle, you shiver. The cold night air is suddenly bitter in your lungs.
You back away from your desk, taking in your room. It had been pretty dull when you first moved in, but a few lavish (and cheap) banners and paintings had done well in covering the cracked walls and dark corners. You looked up towards the ceiling, looking at the flickering candles hung above you. Their wax runs over the dishes they are suspended in, but nothing has reached falling point. The creamy red stalactites were starting to hang low, though. Maybe the Princess's phoenix would like another wax bath soon. The last one did make her feathers gleam quite nicely last time.
You jump as there is a knock at the thick door. Visitors for you? At this time of night?
Frowning, you trot over to the door. "Who goes there?"
"Who else?"
"Oh!" You struggle to open the door with a thick rope tied to the handle, but give up and use your magic instead. "What are you doing up so late, Miss?"
"The nightmares again. I thought they would end after she... she was gone, but they've only gotten worse." A young mare, only slightly taller than you, trots into the room. For the power she exudes, you can almost see her as being much taller and prouder, but now she seems to be weak. Feeble, even. Her pink mane, long and knotted with the tossing and turning of her feverish dreams, hangs limply around her neck, and thick gray bags hang under each dull pink eye. She has a horn, too, but it barely sticks through her bangs. Her wings are equally small for her age - at least, what her age seems to be - and the feathers are ruffled horribly.
"P-Princess Celestia! Have you been taking the potions the shaman has been making up for your dreams?"
She rolls her eyes, shambling towards your bed. "The honey disagrees with me, but he won't leave it out."
"Oh." You don't quite know what else to say - the Princess looks to be nearly asleep on her hooves anyway, and she's nearly pulled her back legs up onto your mattress. "What are you doing?"
"She tore up Mister Spike," Princess Celestia muttered, curling up on the other side of the bed and pulling the heavy blankets over her back.
"I had almost forgotten." It was true - you had never given much thought to the Princess's raggedy old plush dragon, even when her sister had torn it in half with an icy band of magic - but you still didn't quite understand. "But why...?"
"Mister Spike was the last thing Momma gave me." She whispered. "Gave us."
"Oh."
She nods, but it's a very small movement. She looks even younger, bundled up in your blankets. You realize that you're not sure how old she is; the current generation still remembers a time before her rule, but her age (or her appearance's age) spiked when she took control of the Elements to banish Discord. Her sister's had too, but...
"I need to keep the nightmares away."
"You need a cuddle buddy?"
She glares at you through a curtain of pink mane. The edges of it still shimmer with green, blue and purple, remnants of her daylight power. "I will banish you to the-"
She drops the sentence, burying her muzzle in a pillow. What used to be a commonplace threat whenever you skipped a lesson has now become a lasting wound. Hesitantly, you jump up into the bed beside her. The spell you were working on lies forgotten on your desk, the edges of the pages lifting slightly in the wind.
You whisper a goodnight to the Princess before wrapping your nightgown around your body, letting her keep the blankets. She scoots over to press her back against yours. She drops off to sleep quite easily, her snores muffled by the pillow. You wait for a moment, wondering if you'll have any other unexpected visitors, but sleep claims you quickly too.
Above you, above your room, above the ramparts of the castle and above the sky itself, a single pony stands in a white wasteland, singing soft notes of sleep to be carried along the arcane winds to lull a distraught princess to sleep and keep the nightmares at bay.
The only one awake to hear them is soaring around the castle ramparts, wings blazing. The young phoenix lends an ear - she has not yet learned to not heed unknown magics - and instantly grows drowsy. Her wings grow limp as she tumbles towards the castle's ramparts, only saved from a fatal fall by a window you have left open. She plummets through, still blazing, and your table goes up in flames.
You jolt awake as the phoenix crashes into your desk, setting your work ablaze. You yell, picking up the bird and tossing it into the hearth with your magic as you look around for something to put out the blaze. Wind laden with golden sparks kicks up as the fire hits the runes you had inked out, making them glow a brilliant blue. You stare at the Wild Magic in fear, dimly aware of Celestia screaming behind you. The runes are all you can see. Everything else is dark.
With a shudder, it feels as if your spirit is pulled from your body. Almost as quickly, it is slammed back in. Colors and noises ring in your head. The world is spinning. Something is moving nearby - a lot of somethings. Where are you?
Everything hurts. A lot. You can figure out why; your mind is reeling with temporal displacement, just like that time you accidentally teleported five seconds into the future and broke your own nose tripping into yourself. However, as you slowly open your eyes and see nothing but clear blue skies, you don't seem to have any reference points to figure out just how far off you might be.
Well, lying around won't get you anywhere. With considerable effort, you get up onto your hooves and look around. Despite the tingling sensation as you regain feeling in your legs, you don't seem to be in any serious pain. Once your headache subsides, you should be fine. What is less fine, however, is that the sun is bordering on what you think is the setting side, and you seem to be in a thickly forested area.
Certainly enough, you hear the hollow howl of a Timberwolf off to your right. After a few seconds, more join in, all around you. You're not even sure if you would have been able to take on one with your magic as it is, let alone a whole pack. Instincts screaming, you run towards the largest gap in the ring of howls.
Your hooves pound heavily on the grass; you're still wearing your metal shoes, and they're getting heavier as they collect mud. You know for a fact that you shouldn't have that much weight on legs as unsteady as yours are right now, but you're not sure how long you can stop for.
You try to cast a cloaking spell, but your magic flashes like a foal's sparkler and your headache worsens. Blood roaring in your ears, you stumble off to the side, landing on your rump at the base of a tree. Well, you might as well take your shoes off while you're on the ground.
The wolves have gone quiet ever since you stopped running. As you feel your last shoe come loose, a pair of bright yellow eyes moves into a gap between the trees opposite you. You feel your muscles bracing involuntarily, and your hooves press into the thick grass. The wolf has stopped moving, but you can see it's green tongue lolling outside of it's mouth as it pants.
It slowly backs up, and for a moment you think it might be leaving you alone. Much to your chagrin, it lifts it's head up and howls for the pack. You scramble to your hooves and run, your feet feeling incredibly light without your heavy shoes. (You do hate to leave them behind, though; they were silver plated, and engraved with fanciful stars.) The small loss is far from your mind as the lost weight allows you to increase the gap between the lead wolf and you.
This momentary victory is lost as you break free of the trees and find yourself on the shore of a very wide and very fast river. You might be able to hear a waterfall, but you're not sure if it's downstream or upstream. You unconsciously pull your navy nightgown around you as if it might protect you, but the logical part of you continues to rediscover photographs of Timberwolf mauling.
As you contemplate jumping into the river, something jumps out of the trees upstream. It is most definitely not a Timberwolf, but it's not like anything you've ever seen or read about.
It's a bit taller than you are, but doesn't look as solid. It's running gracefully, with long legs and a billowing tuft on the end of it's lion-like tail. It's fur is white, but not dazzlingly so; it looks like something mortal, not some forest spirit come to whisk you away. It has longer ears than you're used to seeing, and has a single curved horn not unlike those you've studied on Changeling drones. However, aside from being the same white as it's coat, it is framed by a short deer-like horn on either side. Something inside you rings with the word 'fantastical' as the creature comes to a stop in front of you, short ivory mane hanging tangled around it's neck.
It looks at you with two rose-colored eyes, and it suddenly strikes you that this creature is female. She turns, pawing at the ground with a cloven hoof. Her tail whips back and forth, and a small ruff of fur around her neck stands on end. You're not sure if she can speak Equish, but her body language is evident. She begins taking small steps back, moving you towards the river. Her ears flick between facing you and facing the forest, and she's getting more agitated with each switch.
You turn away from her, leaping into the water. You land ungracefully - sure, Mother paid for those diving lessons, but what kind of unicorn would prefer being wet over reading books? - but do not sink. In fact, as you stretch out your legs, your hooves skim the bottom. She glances back at you before leaping backwards and into the water herself, dipping underneath just as the Timberwolves emerge from the trees.
She surfaces behind you long enough to shove your head under as well, leaving nothing on the surface. Squinting against the cold water, you see her hooves and tail stirring up the mud and leaves on the bed, smothering the water around you in an impenetrable fog and undoubtedly throwing the Timberwolves above you off their trail.
You follow her as she begins swimming downstream, careful to only lift your nose out for breath. Eventually, the water slows and the depth of the river drops deeper, turning into a wide lake. She surfaces with a gasp, looking at you as you try to catch your breath.
"Hwa bist ðu?" She demands.
You're not sure what she's said, but her tone of voice is effective. You're not sure if you've ever heard this language before, but you're also not sure if she'll leave you alone in the forest, at night, if you don't try to answer.
"My name is Star Swirl," you tell her, trying your best to communicate. "I'm not sure where I am or who you are. I'm very lost and I'm just passing through. Do you know the way to Canterlot? In Equestria?"
She frowns, pawing at the ground, and replies in the other tongue she uses too casually for you to catch the words. You're not really sure what she's even inferring - her eyes are showing no emotion, and her body language is absent at best. Whoever - whatever - this pony is, she doesn't know Equestrian customs.
"Can you understand me?" You ask, smiling to seem friendlier. "At all?"
She frowns, shouting something in her language and tossing her head. You take a few steps back, wondering what you did.
You see a stick off to the left and levitate it with your magic. Bringing it over to the dirt between the two of you, you begin to crudely draw out what you mean.
You point a hoof at your newly created drawing in the dirt; you standing alone on top of a mountain. "I'm lost."
"Losian," she says, tapping the picture. She then points her hoof at you. "Losian?"
"Losian! Me! Yes! I'm losian!" You draw another picture, a simple house. "I need to get home."
"Ham," she replies, "eard."
"Yes! Ham!" You scrape another picture in the dirt, forcing your horn - already aching despite the minor exertion - to glow brighter as the daylight fades. "Do you know this pony?"
She looks down at it, frowning. "Noht cunnan."
You don't understand the second word, but the first is enough. Your disappointment must be evident, though, as she takes your muzzle in her hoof and turns it away from the sketch of Celestia and up towards the sky and the brilliant moon.
"Freolic niht." She says, the stars reflecting in her eyes.
But you don't notice the stars. All you can see is the vast white face of the moon.
Unmarked.
The way it used to be before Nightmare Moon was sent there.
You feel terror rising in your throat and bite back a scream. You know she has not broken free, since there was daylight only a few moments before, but... now that you think about it, there's no torchlight to block the light from the stars. They're magnificent. And, as you search for constellations, all... in the wrong place. Some are downright missing! And there are ones you've never seen before...
You hear the mare yell something, but you can't even really make out the sounds. Huh, the stars look so nice when they spin like that...
-----
You awake in a small brown room, with dust-filled light filtering in through a small, round window. As your senses return in full, you see that the walls are not just brown, but large branches stuck together with mud and roots. The ground you're lying on is packed down, probably by hoof, and you're lying in a nest of sorts; a ring of branches and stones filled with moss and feathers.
You move slightly, feeling odd points of pressure on your spine as you do. Looking back, you see a line of smooth stones placed along your back. They're cool, and surprisingly soothing. You also notice that your forehead is slightly damp, and you presume it has some kind of moss on it. However, your muzzle is tied shut and your rear hooves have been tied together, which is much less relaxing.
The mare walks in again, balancing a wooden jar between antlers and horn. Somehow, she manages to place it on the ground without spilling it. She looks between the jar and you, frowning. You recoil as she reaches out to you, the edges of her split hoof sharp with wear. She rolls her eyes, reaching behind your head and pushing your chin to the ground with ease. With her other forehoof, she pulls off the binding around your mouth.
"Oh. Sorry." When she releases you, you cautiously reach out for the jar. It's water, as you assumed, and you take great gulps of it. You haven't had a drink since you arrived, and you figure that's why you passed out. "How did you get me back here?"
She shakes her head, not understanding, but mutters something that sounds apologetic anyway.
As you finish off the jar of water, a thought occurs to you. One of your unfinished spells had been a translator so that you could send ponies for negotiation with the Griffons. You had been missing a few ingredients that were... extinct.
"Miss!"
She flinched, her gaze swinging from the window to you.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to yell. Have you seen these plants?"
You grab a twig from your nest and start to sketch in the dirt, outlining a few key leaves. You pluck a leaf from the ground as well, placing it beside them. She nods in understanding, getting to her hooves and trotting out. Suddenly raring to go, you roll onto your back and try to bend your back legs close enough to bite the bindings off.
The mare trots back in with a bundle of leaves in her mouth... just in time to see you stuck upside-down with your forelegs spread out to try and balance the rest of you, which is balanced mainly on your shoulders. As she says something, you finally get a grip on your bindings and pull.
You roll out of the nest and into the wall, letting out your breath in a loud huff. She's laughing at you, but your dignity is bruised enough. You manage to get back onto your belly and pull yourself over towards the leaves.
As you begin grinding them with a rock, the mare walks around behind you and begins to collect the stones that you dropped. Just as you finish crushing them, you feel a not-quite-unpleasant sensation of something being very close to your rump. Blushing, you look back, only to see the mare kneeling to untie your back legs. Feeling quite grateful that she didn't notice your reaction, you send a minor magical charge into the mix of leaves.
They begin to glow a dull gold, crumbling inward. They suddenly disappear in a puff of yellow smoke, and you lean forward to breathe it in.
It's quite itchy, and you're sent into a bout of hacking coughs. No wonder people didn't bother to care for these plants.
"Are you alright?"
You turn around, pulling your hind legs away from the mare as she unties the last binding.
"Can you speak? Do you need water?"
"I can understand you," you marvel. "My spell worked!"
"Spell? You can speak like I can? Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" She frowns, standing up. "Now, outsider, where did you come from?"
"I'm a magician. A magic-user. I used a spell that I created with those leaves to be able to talk to you. It was a spell like that that made me come back here. I'm from the future."
"The future?" She tilts her head again. "What place is that?"
"You know how you can't go back to the last sunrise, and you can't skip forward to the next one? What has already happened is the past, and what is going to happen is the future. I'm from many, many sunrises ahead."
"I know what foretime is, you dolt. Where did you come from? You have a horn like us, but no antlers, so you're not one of the Skyfolk or Groundfolk. So who are you?" She drew her lips back slightly in her annoyance, revealing a pair of small fangs.
"I am a Unicorn. From Equestria, far from here. My name is Star Swirl."
She settles a bit more, but is still quite wary. "I'm Clover. Why were you wearing such a gaudy dress?"
You look past her, noticing that your nightgown was hooked on the outside of the window. "Official magician's garb, winter set."
"So it is a sign of your rank?"
"Yes. Like having a sparkly pet chimera, or a magic wand." You reply sarcastically.
She nods curtly. "Then you shall not need it here."
