Not What He Seems
(Warning: Major spoilers ahead!)
Summer had settled in, the lazy haze of the mid-afternoon heat sprawled, like a blanket, upon the grassy hills that marked the edge of the Unicorn Range. Here, the carefully paved roads from Canterlot began to give way to packed dirt and weathered waystones. A single sign, the writing long faded by years of rain and wind, was the only other mark of civilization, a gentle breeze, blowing along the road with a melancholic sigh, the only other sound besides that of two ponies walking down the path and the tap-tap of a magician's staff.
They had been traveling for days, but Clover the Clever had yet to learn about the reasons for this journey. She remembers how it began well enough: a knock on the door to her chambers in Canterlot early one morning, the whispered voice of somepony she knew dearly, the voice of her beloved mentor. Starswirl's voice.
"We leave before dusk," he had said, and told her to pack for a couple of weeks. Since then he had uttered not a word of clarification, which was out of keeping with his usual ways. By common practice he was most didactic about these affairs - a great monster, say, or magical weather gone amuck, or distress and discontent brimming within a community - but not this time. All there had been was walking and silence, and so it persisted until that very moment where Clover dared to speak about it.
"Magister Starswirl," she finally asked, holding down the little lump in her throat she always had whenever she tried to question her master. "Why are we-"
"In time," said Starswirl the Bearded, and more silence soon followed. The rolling hills gave way to gentle slopes and tall trees that grew steadily taller and thicker the further they went. Soon, sunset was upon them and they made camp amidst a small clearing. While Starswirl set up the tents and started the fire, Clover foraged in the woods, finding some choice herbs and bush leaves to supplement their rations. They sat together for dinner, Clover gazing intently at Starswirl as he perused a small red book which she had never seen before. A new compendium of spells perhaps? She was about to speak again, but this time it was Starswirl who spoke.
"Clover, do you remember when we first met, in the old unicorn kingdom? It seems like so long ago." He didn't look up from his reading, but his eyes grew wistful and longing.
Clover nodded, remembering it so clearly despite the passage of so many years, thirty years, in fact. She was only a foal, barely a filly, when King Bullion's ponies-at-arms trotted a bedraggled stranger into the court, a rough-looking stallion spouting tales of woe. "This winter will not be abated by the passage of time," he had warned, his tattered cloak clinging to sore flesh and bone. "There's something dark swirling all this up, and I think we are part of the cause!"
"You were like some crazy vagrant," she said, daring to chuckle, and to her delight and relief Starswirl also chuckled a little.
"I really was, wasn't I?" he said. "Thankfully I've learned a thing or two about fashion since then." He reached up and fondled the little bell at the end of his large wizard hat, smiling.
"That certainly seems to be the case!" Clover stated. "A hat just for wizards? Even I thought it was bizarre but now all your students are taking up the style."
"It's a very wizardly sort of thing where I come from," said Starswirl.
"Where you come from?" asked Clover.
Suddenly Starswirl's joy faded back to somberness, and Clover knew not to press further. The rest of the night was spent on small talk, but awake in her tent Clover mused over their conversation, her thoughts punctuated by the occasional sight, through the tent flaps, of Starswirl charging his staff. Come to think of it, nopony had ever bothered to discover where Starswirl had come from before all this. She had always assumed his homeland was much like the unicorn kingdom she always knew, only farther away.
Sleep and a delicious berry breakfast were enough to assuage her anxieties over the matter, but still she wondered, and in her ponderings she began to piece together clues and hints and form strange deductions.
"This is a...personal journey, isn't it, Starswirl?"
Starswirl paused in the middle of eating a scone, turning his head to regard his charge. "I suppose there's a reason why they call you 'The Clever'," he stated.
Clover felt the need to smile a little, even though the mood seemed to be suddenly quite heavy. "You probably know what I'm going to ask next, then."
"I am afraid so," said Starswirl. "But, really, I think you already know the answer."
It took only a few moments for Clover to remember, to know. As a younger unicorn Starswirl had always been in the habit of introducing strange new customs to the unicorn tribe. "Instead of eating out of our bowls we should use these things I call 'utensils'!" he had said one day, demonstrating by using a miniature silver pitchfork he had crafted to eat his salad. The nobles scoffed at the whole idea, but it quickly became a trend among the elite anyway.
There had been other things, too, like when Starswirl had introduced something called a 'toothbrush' for oral cleaning. "It'll better than just gargling that spew you call 'mouthwash' all the time!" he asserted. That particularly innovation was rather more popular, having eliminated the need to pre-mint your mouth before social occasions.
Nopony had really questioned any of these things too carefully, however. Starswirl was obviously a stranger or outsider of some kind, but his great deeds of magic were enough to silence doubts about his intentions, about his love for ponykind and now for Equestria, too. Yet, that very morning, as Clover considered everything that had happened until then, she began to see more to the story.
"If I had known we were going to visit your homeland I would've packed more appropriately!" she declared.
"I appreciate your eagerness!" Starswirl replied, brushing away some crumbs that had become lodged in his beard. "I fear, though, that you may not be able to endure the journey. It was dangerous enough to send me here as it is."
"I'm guessing you didn't just walk to the unicorn kingdom from your home," Clover surmised.
"Oh, heavens, the walk is a story in itself!" Starswirl answered. "But before that... yes, there's the real mystery."
They broke camp quickly enough and set about on their journey once more. Clover was itching to ask more questions, but all Starswirl would say was "one more day and I can show you."
They didn't have that much time, as it turned out.
Night shrouded the forest, and Clover stirred little in her slumber. Far beyond the realm of dusk, the crickets had ebbed to silence and the wind sauntered low among the treetops. All that remained was a dim rumbling in the distance, like the snores of a sleepy earth.
That rumbling grew louder, and harder, until very quickly Clover was rattled awake, her eyes snapping open from an incredible pressure that buffeted her ears. Scrambling to her feet at once she rushed out of her tent and surveilled her surroundings amidst the dying light of the fire. The earth was still, but the rumbling persisted, as if the air itself was being wrung too tightly. She covered her ears, her head pounding and throbbing, force and gravity invading the space around her body. It was like drums were being tamped down inside the canals of skull. Her mouth hung open as she tried to cry out, but the air seemed too heavy to allow for even a sound to escape her. Suddenly, with a loud snap, the pressure relieved, and once again she could perceive the cold night air.
Clover gasped and breathed heavily, shivering with both fright and relief. For a few moments she stood still, letting herself recover the time lost, regaining her bearings. From well-practiced instinct she turned her head to glance at Starswirl's tent, not entirely surprised to find that he was gone.
That hideous rumble came again, louder and faster this time. As the traitorous air invaded her skull, gripped her body tightly as if to crush her bones, Clover's horn glowed brightly as she enacted a counterspell, a thick bubble of energy forming around her. Even then the outside realm pressed against the barrier, deforming the spherical shape, buckling it in. Clover grunted with effort as she applied greater power, but the force was so great, maybe too great.
"Who are you? Show yourself!" she challenged, gritting her teeth as she fought the invasive force, the air outside shimmering and warping from the pressure. With considerable energy she stretched herself forward, every hoofstep a feat of strength, encumbered as she was by the effort of the spell and the resistance of the heavy air. With her last free reserves of magic she conjured a floating lamp, sending it forth to scry her foe, but she noticed even as it came into being that it's very light was being syphoned by something dark and cold.
Still, she trudged on, her stamina steadily being sapped, her magical light steadily growing dimmer. With another grunt of effort she accelerated the lamp, sending it farther and farther. It was enough; just as the last of the light was swallowed up, she saw something, shadowy and sinister, off in the distance. Was that the cause of all this?
"You won't get away!" she shouted in denunciation. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw shimmering at the edge of where that thing might be. It was trying to move somewhere else! She had to react quickly: with deft manipulation she collapsed her shield and, at the same time, re-channelled all that magic into her horn - brilliant light, like fire, glowed tremendously as she charged a blast, the sinuses of her head heavy with such weight that she thought she could feel blood trickling out of her ears. Faster than thought itself, a magnificent compound of light and heat came surging forth from her horn, carving a deathly path towards her putative foe and bursting into liquid fire, a chaotic splash of destruction burning and raging in the distance.
Immediately the pressure left her again and she stumbled forward, her previous over-balanced posture unsuitable for the thinner air. Clover, driven by determination, lost no time. Thrusting her hooves towards the ground, she sprang forth and charged her assailant, her horn glowing with awful anticipation. Onward she ran, her hooves clattering against the hard dirt, every length closer that she galloped accompanied by the growing power of her spell, power that collapsed immediately when her opponent, black and formless, reached forward and swatted her aside like a cheap toy.
"Ahhh!" she screamed aloud, barely able to express her shock as the wind was knocked right out from her. Breathing heavily, she looked up and beheld a great darkness looming above, a form so black that it sucked it all light and life, life like her own. That heaviness was returning, and bereft of her power she felt the fullness of that demonic weight, pressing her down and squeezing what felt like her innermost being through the pores of her body. She tried to open her mouth to scream but no sound escaped. Nothing escaped.
A bright flash erupted in the middle of the looming darkness, and suddenly it reeled back, wisps of shadow flailing about chaotically. Clover took a deep, painful breath as she found herself freed, staggering about on her legs and almost falling over. She feared to look up, but wizardly curiosity succeeded over avoiding a confrontation with her own mortality. Before her the shadow-thing was retreating, under assault by jagged beams of light that spewed forth from somewhere behind her. She craned her neck, knowing whom to expect, but seeing more than she had expected.
There was Starswirl, all right, his horn aglow with starlight, but something else, too, was there. Floating besides Starswirl, the source of those beams of energy, was a strange thing, a long instrument with a nozzle from which the energy surged out and some kind of levered mechanism which Starswirl was magicking to make the object operate. With every salvo it let out a peculiar sound that seemed akin to balloons popping while on fire.
"You should've stayed in your tent!" he called out to Clover, edging closer to her to bring his apprentice within the protection of his own shield. "Though it might be to our advantage after all. Can you move? Perhaps you can help to drive her away."
"What? Her?" Clover spluttered, but she did as she was told. Straightening herself on rickety legs, she stepped forward and kept pace with her master, pacing herself so as to let her magical reserves build up once more, to keep up with Starswirl who sent volley after volley of energy into the shadow-thing. Every time, it (or perhaps "she") slinked back, diminished, but just as quickly new darkness grew to fill in the gaps.
Starswirl picked up his pace, and Clover surmised that he intended to finish the entity off, but as soon as he let off a particularly large projectile the shadow-thing, now clearly smaller, leapt up into the air - she could feel the inverse pressure tug at her body, as if to suction her towards the creature. Its form seemed to swirl around, gyrating and spinning in chaotic patterns, but the overall trend was towards compaction. Steadily, it shrunk, but also gained definition and shape, as though it was gathering itself together, becoming more solid. It grew brighter just as the pressure reversed and suddenly pushed outward for a brief, blinding moment as something like starlight burst forth from it, and it was gone. But something else was there now.
It shone brilliantly like the diamond, six crystalline 'arms' radiating from a gem-like centre. Before Clover's sight the thing manifested a single large eye in the middle of its 'body', and it - she - gazed down at the ponies with a mixture of amusement and contempt. "Oh, how droll," she intoned, her voice haughty and echoic. "An apprentice? Clearly, given her novice skill."
"Clover the Clever is the most powerful mage in Equestria, behind myself," Starswirl asserted. "You're a bit behind the times, Starry Night."
"Oh, poor you, still talking about 'time' like it's really a thing," Starry mocked. "So I suppose it's going to sound pretty funny when I say YOU HAVE NO TIME LEFT." Her voice suddenly gained a deep, sinister register, her body flashing with images of places and times unknown to Clover. The uni-mare gasped as a beam of dark energy suddenly surged forth from Starry towards Starswirl. The response was instinctive: she sent forth her own magick to intercept the attack, the air crackling and shivering with unbounded energy. As soon as that energy met, Clover suddenly found herself blind.
She saw much more. A tear in the fabric of the world sprung into being, and images of great portent spewed outward. She saw Princess Luna, but she was different, much greater, much darker. She saw crystal towers shatter before an onslaught of thunder and ice. She felt a presence loom over a high bastion of steel and glass, the moon and sun cowed into submission. Too much; too much.
A deep breath, a heartbeat, and then it was gone. Clover barely had time to gasp when she saw with her eyes once again, Starry's deflected blast inverting back toward herself, splashing against her stellar form with great violence. She screamed in fury as her body seemed to briefly blink in and out of existence, the air trembling in fear of her. "Ohh! You little beasts!" she cursed, her one eye glaring bloody murder at both the unicorns. "You think you can wait out the end? I have all the time in this world to outlast you; not even the might of two worlds can stop our plan!"
"Generations yet to come will oppose you, Starry Night," Starswirl said defiantly. "You cannot comprehend the power that binds this world together, the power of friendship!"
"'Friendship?' Hah!" Starry mocked. "Let's see how your vaunted friendship holds up when HER DARKNESS RISES TO STRIKE DOWN THE SKY." Her 'arms' began to spin around, the illusory opaqueness of her form giving way to a chaos of colour and light. "I'm bored of this game," she said, suddenly calm. "I'll be around to watch your world burn, Starswirl, whether you want me to or not!" Her body drained itself of all dimension, becoming something like a drawing. Symbols appeared around her: Clover saw a sun and moon, but also others, like a bunch of stars, a few balloons, a group of diamonds, and something like Starswirl's cutie mark. Wait... it was Starswirl's cutie mark. Before Cutie could comprehend what it could possibly mean, there was another blinding flash, and, just like that, Starry was gone, the whole forest swallowed up once again by the comforting veneer of normality.
Time slowly caught up to Clover. Deep breaths. A few swallows to wet her throat. Starswirl drew closer, the weapon he was using reforming itself into the familiar wizard's staff he always used. "A crash course in my affairs, but you did splendidly," he said, smiling weakly.
Clover slowly turned her head to face him. "I've never seen her, even though you've shown me everything else."
Starswirl sighed aloud, and for an instant Clover could perceive the weight of many lifetimes upon him. "I guess I should start from the beginning," he said. "You are right that I am an outsider, but I ought to tell you what kind of outsider, exactly."
"Let me start with the questions," Clover broke in. "First off...what was that thing your staff turned into?"
"Ah, well," said Starswirl, "it wasn't always a staff..."
That summer day was dying, the sky growing ever more red and dark as they drew closer and closer towards whatever end lay before them. Silence ruled; there was little else to say except goodbye.
"I'm sorry for keeping so many secrets," said Starswirl, looking truly regretful. "I'd always planned on telling you, on passing along my burden, but events interfered."
"They have that habit, yes," said Clover. "I am just... I fear the path before me, Magister, but only because I do not have your grasp of the future."
"The future is a fickle thing, you know!" said Starswirl. "Many hear the echoes of things yet to come, but few, very few, can understand, let alone listen. Even I cannot totally make sense of it."
"Starswirl," said Clover, her voice beginning to quaver. "Can't you stay a little longer? There is so much that you can still teach ponykind!"
"I... I can't," he replied, frowning. "There is much I have missed in the other place that I must correct. I have to return to the life I left behind, if only for the sake of safeguarding the future of all creation."
At last, they were there. The clearing was like any other, save the huge, star-shaped scorch mark that covered most of the centre, the soil around it bare and brown. "We're just in time," said Starswirl, edging closer towards that place. "I can feel it coming; brace yourself Clover."
Clover could feel it too, the sudden presence of... strangeness, of something like bending and folding. It was like when she used a teleportation spell, but stronger, as if the world itself was pulling her aside. The air seemed to twist and warp with the feeling. No... it really was warping, a hole in the walls of the world tearing open before her eyes. It was the largest mana-wound she had ever seen, a humongous wind roaring forth from its wild, stormy interior. She thought she could hear voices from the other side, but she couldn't make them out amidst the great tumult. "Magister Starswirl!" she shouted, barely hearing her own voice. "What of Equestria? What of us?"
Starswirl turned his head and smiled with such gravity that Clover felt her heart ache. "Only friendship can save all our worlds, my dear." The mana-wound suddenly expanded, and Clover thought that the whole planet would be swallowed. She held her breath, closed her eyes, raw instinct taking control for but an instant; when she opened her eyes, the wind had died and the tear had disappeared with Starswirl. Equestria's greatest magician was gone, perhaps forever.
It was familiar, so familiar, to him. He'd jumped through many of these portals, even made much of them himself, but this one - this one - was different. Special. There was, of course, the tremendous size and the "distance" (if it could be called that) of the transportation. More significantly, there was warmth, the warmth of coming back from a long journey, perhaps longer than anyone ought to take.
At first, it was all a blur of shapes and lines, as if somepony had smudged the windows of his sight. Wait... that's because he was a little myopic. How could he have forgotten! He reached into his pants pocket and placed his rimmed glasses on his nose with one hand.
It took him a few seconds to get his bearings, the portal humming loudly behind him. He knew this place, the harsh lines, the cold metal, the many, many wires. There was something on the ground in front of him, something boxy and familiar, like a... ah, yes, there it is! He thrust out his six-fingered hand and slipped the book into his coat, the emptiness of thirty years finding some satisfaction.
Another emptiness tugged at him as he perceived others in the room with him. There was a fat young man slumped on the ground in a daze. There were two children, a boy and a girl, oogling at him in wonder and awe. Somehow they seemed familiar, almost like.... Oh. Yes. Of course.
The last one he saw was the one who made his heart leap, a beloved friend, a trusted confident, a sorely missed companion. He was much older now, wrinkles on his face and grey hair tucked haphazardly beneath a red fez. It was this man who stepped forward, his bright eyes brimming with gladness. "It's been way too long...way too long!" he declared, suddenly and brashly putting his arms around the newcomer.
The man formerly known as Starswirl embraced the fez-wearing man with fraternal affection, his eyes moist. "I'm just glad to be back, brother!"
Clover sat in the back of a caravan, a chance encounter as she had been walking the long road back to Canterlot. The ponies pulling the carriage had quickly offered a ride upon learning who she was, but whatever gratitude she had for them was, of course, much attenuated by the great loss she had recently experienced. A flurry of thoughts came to her as she made plans for the future: the explanations, the assurances, the political ramifications. All of that was useless to her; right now, she wanted to see her Magister, her mentor, just one more time.
It had to happen, though, as much as she hated to admit it. This was bigger than the wendigos, or the ursa majors, or even the changelings. Her mind swam frantically in a sea of worries as she tried to comprehend the weight of her new responsibilities, forcing herself to slowly, slowly settle into her new role as guardian of Equestria. It was all so much, and the task so great, and she had little idea if she could provide even an adequate service in Starswirl's memory.
No... he wasn't just Starswirl, was he?
She rummaged through her pack and took it out, Starswirl's last gift. It was a wholly unassuming object, made of simple red leather from the gleanings of a binder's shop, but to her it felt like it contained the whole meaning of the world. On the cover was a horseshoe with six gaps along the curve and a large number "four" emblazoned inside the shape. Gingerly, she turned to the first page and read the introduction.
"I've finally figured out how to write; looks like magic has a lot more uses than scaring diamond dogs away. Anyway, it looks like I'm going to be here long-term, so I might as well start another volume on the same theme as before. There is more mystery and wonder in a single acre of land here than there was in all of Gravity Falls, but I bet that the dangers have multiplied accordingly. Let's hope I can figure this all out and get home soon!" -- S
Clover's lips quivered as she beheld the drawing on the very next page, a diamond dog with a club and a note from "S" next to it: "Very ugly!" It was his... it was all his. The style, the diction, even the clever wit. She close the book and held it tightly against her body, sighing. "Goodbye...Stanley."