A man with no memories of his past wakes up in a time before the events of the first Heart's warming eve goes on an adventure.
A man with no memory of his past and who he was wakes up before the events of the first Hearth's Warming Eve. Armed with nothing more but a knife and a gun with very limited ammo, he sets out on a strange adventure trying to find out the mysteries of this strange and magical world while finding out who he was and how he ended up there.
Will he survive to see the next day? Will he learn of his past? And will he be caught up in the three tribes' problems? Only time will tell...
---------- Note: This story is purely experimental to test my writing abilities and I may or may not continue it once I finish it.
It was the last thing I remembered before losing everything and ending up in this cold, watery grave.
My senses were numb as I stared at the only light I could see, from a hole on sheets of broken ice. There were debris of metal and scrap surrounding me as I slowly sank further and further into my watery grave.
How did I end up here? Why am I not struggling? And why was I not afraid?
Death was something that was supposed to scare everyone right? Especially when you haven’t succeeded in life.
So… Why was I not afraid?
I mean, what is there to be afraid of in the first place? If you don’t know something, shouldn’t you be afraid of it? Do you even have to be afraid of something you don’t know?
I continued staring at the now frozen up hole as my mind kept looping around the question, over and over again.
I saw the light change from a bright white light to a fiery red then to pitch black and then… Nothing.
I felt a creeping darkness slowly enveloping me as I felt the last bit of my strength slowly fading away. So this is what death feels like? Since I have nothing to look back to, I didn’t care at all.
After clinging on to my last moments, I finally prepared to embrace death and leave this life for good.
But death has other plans for me…
I felt my soul suddenly forced back inside me. I woke up and tried gasping for air but instead inhaled water. I quickly closed my mouth and without hesitation began looking for a way out. I saw light coming from a small hole and began swimming to it.
I didn’t care about anything about my surroundings or anything at all, it felt like I was possessed and that I was seeing things in a ghostly perspective, I couldn’t even see my own body. I couldn’t tell why I was also struggling to swim, I wasn’t stuck to something right? I slowly inched closer and closer to the light but I also got weaker the closer I got.
I wasn’t going to give up easily, not yet! With all my strength, I pushed myself beyond my limits to get out of my watery grave. After nearly passing out a couple of times, I felt the air touch my hand. I grabbed the surface of the ice and pulled myself out to the surface.
-----
I felt a chilling wind wash over my back waking me up. Everything also felt cold as well. Was the fire out? I thought to myself, I know I added enough fuel to make it last overnight. Did a window suddenly open and blew out the flames? No, that wasn’t it, if it did I would’ve woken up from the sound of the window being forcefully opened.
I opened my eyes and realized that I was on the floor, I guess I passed out due to exhaustion. I noticed that it was quite dark outside. I stood up and saw that the fire was indeed out.
Great, I overslept again. I lit up my horn and walked towards the window, I wondered how it opened, I was sure that I locked it. I closed the window and then walked fireplace to rekindle the flames. I added some firewood and, with a small spark of magic, the fire lit up, lighting up my whole room.
I planned to get some food but noticed that something was off about my room. I thought about what was wrong but then realized that it was strangely clean. All the books were on the shelves, my study desk was neatly clean. I tried remembering the last thing that happened before falling asleep, I remembered that I was on my study desk.
Maybe somepony entered my room, cleaned up everything, and tried carrying me to my bed but gave up halfway through and left me on the floor instead of my bed or my couch by the fireplace? No, that can’t be it. A small tap is enough to wake me up. So, why do I feel like something that was wrong?
As I was thinking of a possible explanation to why my room was clean, I heard something outside. It sounded like neighing from somewhere beyond the clouds.
As I got closer to the window, it slowly started freezing. It didn’t seem too much of a problem until it kept going, the room started getting colder and colder as every second pass by.
I panicked and quickly ran to the door but couldn’t open it. I tried to pry it open but it was jammed shut. I used my magic to try and blast the door open but nothing happened. I then turned around and tried bucking but that didn't work neither. I started banging the door, calling for help but no pony answered. Suddenly, the door started freezing.
I ran to the fireplace to find comfort from the cold but the door to the balcony blasted wide open and blew out the flames. I tried to rekindle it but to no avail. I then saw 3 strange ghostly equestrian-like figures slowly approaching me. Each step they made, the colder the room got.
The sounds of their hooves made a loud knocking sound filling the room. The knocking wouldn’t stop as the 3 figures stared down at me menacingly. I closed my eyes and waited for the end, until…
--
A loud banging on the other side of my door woke me up from my sleep and I heard a voice from the other side.
“Sir Clover?! Are you in there?!”
The mare behind the door knocked on the door again.
“Yes! Yes! I’m awake!” I shouted back, breathing heavily “What is it?”
“Fo-Forgive me for my intrusions sir,” The mare said in a worried tone, “I was delivering food to you but you didn’t answer the door for quite some time, and I was afraid that something may have happened.”
“Right, my apologies, I was tired last night.” I looked at my study table, I guess I fell asleep studying again.
“Anyways sir, should I place the tray on the floor or should I go inside?”
“No no! I’ll get it.” I stood up from my study and walked towards the door.
The room was as messy as I remembered it, books scattered to the floor, paper littered everywhere, a couple of books stacked on top of each other, yeah this is real. I almost tripped on a couple of them.
I opened the door and greeted the servant, she was wearing nothing more but a simple gray cloak, her mane was a slightly dull green and so were her eyes. She also looked a little thin and had bags under her eyes. She was also carrying the food tray on her back, balancing it out making sure it doesn't spill to the floor, quite the acrobatic she had I thought. She levitated the tray and handed it to me and I thanked her for delivering the food. She simply nodded and left without a word.
I levitated the food tray and entered back into my room. The food was just a celery, steaming tomato soup, and a cup of water. I placed the tray on the side of my study table and looked back at the last book I read.
Windigos.
Nothing more but a foals tale of ghostly horses that freezes and feeds off of the hatred and fighting amongst creatures. I closed the book and sat back down on my study. I looked outside and sighed, “Another day and everything is still frozen…”
I grabbed the celery and started eating it while staring at the last book I read.
I climbed out of the watery hole while gasping for air, crawling into the snow covered shores. I turned my back towards the ground as I looked towards the darkened sky. I then started laughing.
“I’m alive…” I said as I was still laughing, “How am I alive?”
I then stopped laughing as I felt my numb body slowly waking up after what felt like a long nap in freezing water. I raised my right hand towards the sky and moved around to test if it was still good. After testing my right arm, I tried to raise my left, but I couldn’t feel anything on my arm. Was it still numb? I looked to my left and saw that my whole left arm was gone. Not just the forearm, but also the shoulder as well, leaving nothing more but a small stump where my arm was supposed to be.
What happened to me? How did I get here? I thought to myself. I tried to remember how I ended up here but my mind came up blank. Why can’t I remember anything? Some part of me wanted to panic while the other part just didn’t seem to mind.
I was deep in my thoughts when the cold wind washed over my body as I snapped back to reality. What was I doing? First, get out of the cold, find shelter, and find help. Then you can start having a damn crisis.
I sat up straight and shifted my legs to feel comfortable. I then realized how tattered my clothes were. There were multiple holes and tears everywhere, and if I don’t act quickly, I may probably die from the cold before finding shelter.
I then started searching for whatever I had on me. I first checked my pockets and found nothing. I noticed a leather strap on me and saw a dark brown satchel hanging from it so I checked it out next. I opened it and found a sheathed knife, a pistol that strangely feels old, 2 magazines to what I presume is for the pistol, and a water canteen.
Well, at least it’s something. I grabbed the knife and placed it on the ground. I then unsheathed it to check if I can still use it. I was expecting it to be a bit rusted or dull but to my surprise? It looked quite sharp, and clean too. It has something also engraved on it, the symbols were quite foreign as it was a mix of lines and squares from what I’m guessing.
I sheathed my knife then stood up and looked around for shelter but all I could see was a forest across a snow ridden plain. As I can’t seem to find anything else, I guess I’m going to the forest instead.
I felt my spine tingle as the winds kept blowing and felt the temperature slowly dropping. I looked at the storm, then back to the forest in the distance, I sighed and started walking, “Well, into the cold white wasteland…”
----
I was busy eating my food while looking back at the last book I read before dozing off last night. It was the story of the Windigoes. Starswirl read this to me when I was young, so did my mum. So, why was I reading a foals tale anyways? I don’t think this had any relevance to my studies. Perhaps it was just out of boredom. Perhaps.
While deep in my thoughts, my ears twitched as I heard a knock on my door.
“Who is it?” I asked
“It’s me again, sir,” It was the servant from awhile ago, “I’m here to deliver the weekly report on the supplies.”
“It’s that time of the week again?” I said as I closed my book, “Alright, I’ll get it.”
I stood up and walked towards the door and opened it to see the same mare that delivered my food awhile ago.
She handed me the papers of the report on the supplies, “Here they are, sir.”
I thanked her as I grabbed the papers and levitated it towards my desk. She nodded back at me and left without saying anything else, like she was in a hurry or something. I started noticing something about her, it’s somewhere at the tip of my tongue but I couldn’t think of anything.
I closed the door and started walking back to my desk where I placed the reports at. I sat down and drank a small cup of water and started reading the weekly reports. Well, building materials were quite abundant, homes and facilities were still being maintained as usual, some minor frostbite from a few citizens, nothing but a little bit of magic and first can’t handle, and so far, no deaths yet. Food was, also, surprisingly looking well.
The report was looking good until I looked at the firewood. The fuel consumption rate drastically increased from the past days ever since the temperature dropped making the fuel only able for about 2 weeks at most at this rate.
I was hoping to find a report for the watch posts but found none. It’s been nearly a week and I haven’t heard any news from them, strange.
I heard a knock on my door again.
Annoyed, I sighed and placed the reports down, “Who is it?”
“Sorry for disturbing you again sir,” The same servant from before said, “But Princess Platinum is demanding for your presence immediately.”
“Alright, alright…” I sighed feeling more annoyed today than usual, “Inform the Princess that I will be going there now.”
“Yes, sir.” I heard her leaving.
I got up and grabbed the papers but after doing that, I suddenly realized how smelly and dirty I was. Well a little quick wash wouldn’t hurt any pony. I placed the reports back down and headed for the bathroom to take a quick bath. I gotta make myself presentable after all.
I felt the air slowly getting colder as I reached the forest. I hoped for something like a road but found nothing but snow. Since I finally got here, I decided to walk through the forest and hoped that I could find shelter or someone.
The forest was quite dead, well, more frozen than dead. I could see that most of the leaves on the trees were gone, there were branches scattered everywhere on the ground. I could also see mounds of snow slowly forming.
I looked back up at the sky to see how much I had left. Apparently still a lot, since the sun hasn't left its place. Strange, it felt like I walked for hours, apparently not since the sun hasn’t even moved an inch.
I could feel the chilling air slowly get even colder and I started to shiver. I guess my body had finally catched up to that cold feeling that was supposed to be felt when I left the water ages ago. I started to curse my past self for wearing such tattered clothes and for losing my left shoulder.
I kept having a strange, nagging feeling at the back of my head that something isn’t right but I’m not quite sure what it was, so I kept my guard up throughout the whole walk.
What felt like hours of constantly shivering and slow trudges through the ankle deep snow, I stumbled upon something sticking out of the snow covered ground. I started digging to find out what it was. At first, I thought it was a wooden pole but I tried pulling it but it wouldn’t budge a bit. After a bit more digging, I found out what the wooden pole on the ground was.
It was apparently a fence, a wooden fence. Why would there be a wooden fence out here? I thought to myself. As I was thinking of a possible reason to why it was out here, a thought suddenly hit me. Could it be? I checked my surroundings and noticed that I was in a clearing. I quickly ran to the other side of the small clearing and started digging on the ground in hopes that my theory was correct.
After digging for a bit, I found the same wooden fence buried beneath the snow. I soon came to the conclusion that I’m on a road that was buried in snow. I guess nobody used it for quite some time.
I looked around at the distance, trying to see a landmark of sorts. I couldn't see anything, no important looking thing or anything. I sighed and with no other choice, decided to follow the road up in hopes of finding someone or something that can keep me from dying slower. If there's a road? Then there’s civilization nearby, right?
----
I got out of my room and wore my usual brown cloak and carried a saddlebag to store the notebooks containing the reports of the supplies and events from the past few months to the current days.
I walked down the halls of the castle with a feeling of annoyance. Sure, I’m the royal advisor of the princess herself and most unicorns would be honored by it but it’s a job I’m not happy doing. Yeah sure the princess has a beautiful white coat and pink mane with eyes as green as emerald. Her charm is beyond that of the greatest of bards and scholars.
Despite seemingly like the fairest maiden of the land, she is nothing more than a snobby princess who cares for little of the well being of others than herself and of her own kind. She treats all the other ponies who aren’t unicorns as nothing more than bugs and sees unicorns as the “master” race who deserves to rule this world.
I still wondered why she made me her royal advisor anyways? That's a thought that swirled in my head most of the time I'm by her side. What was the thing that made me advisor worthy? Sure she couldn’t make Starswirl her advisor since he was too busy studying magic and ensuring that the sun and moon goes up and down. But why me? I’m nothing more but an apprentice. I don’t have the best skills in terms of not only magic, but also, in, well... advising! Besides, she doesn’t listen to any of my advice anyways, and I feel more like a servant than an actual advisor.
So why does she keep me around? What was the thing that she sees in me that's worth being a royal advisor for?
I put those thoughts aside for now as I reached the door to Princess Platinum’s room. There were 2 royal unicorn guards standing guard. I asked to be let in as the princess requested for me. The guards nodded and opened the door to let me in.
The princess’s personal room, a fairly decent sized room with decent decoration, one that is suited for royalty. There were sculptures of herself and of her father adjacent from each other by the balcony door. The smoothened stone walls were littered with gems of different color but none of them were glowing aside from the one in the ceiling. She also has a small bookcase by the corner. Which is obviously being overshadowed by her overly decorated closet. Her overly lavish and large bed compliments her snobbish attitude.
I saw the princess sitting on her couch by the fireplace near a large window overlooking the kingdom. There was a tea set right beside her as well.
She was wearing her usual royal attire, but without her regalia and just her cloak. “Hello your highness.” I made a short and formal bow
“Ah, Clover The Clever,” Princess Platinum said with an optimistic tone without looking away from the window, “Took you awhile to get here.”
“Sorry if I took a while,” I said as I glanced around the room, “I took a quick shower that's all. So, what do you need me for, your highness?”
“Straight to business then? No small talk of how I’m doing?” She said as she picked up her tea cup with her magic, “Alright then, how are we doing in terms of supplies?”
“Well, for building supplies,” I explained, “We have a surplus of it and I highly doubt we would be running out of it anytime soon. As for food, we have about at least 1 month if we remain with our usual rationing routine, and an additional month if we conserve it to bare essential”
“A month's worth? Well at least we’ll have a month to find a way to end this winter,” Princess Platinum said as she started sipping on her hot tea, “because I don’t want to look thinner than I need to already, gotta keep my beauty and all.”
“Unfortunately,” I tone shifted to one of worry, “I can’t say we are doing well for firewood.”
“What do you mean, darling?”
I levitated a small notebook from my saddle bag containing the reports of the past few weeks to the latest ones and gave it to the princess, “I made some comparisons to the firewood usage last week and compared them to the past two nights ago, and the results aren’t pretty.”
Princess Platinum started reading the reports and nearly spat out some tea but instead forcefully swallowed it.
“Two weeks?!” Princess Platinum angrily said, “How are we down to two weeks left?! There are trees everywhere!”
“We don’t really know your highness,” I said as I levitated another notebook from my bag, “The only reports I have, which was 4 days ago, was that there was something spooking the foragers.”
“Well that was 4 days ago, where is the latest report?” Princess Platinum asked
“Unfortunately, princess,” I answered in a worried tone, “This report is the latest one I currently have right now.”
“Great, just great,”Princess Platinum then rubbed her head with her hoof, “Father is not going to be pleased.”
“So… What now, princess?” I asked
“What now?” Princess Platinum said with an annoyed tone in her voice, “We take a trip to see your mentor.”
“Wait what?”
“Yes you heard me right,” Princess Platinum said as she stood up and placed her tea cup back on the table, “We are going to see Starswirl The Bearded. Now get me my crown and also, carry my tea as well.”
Hours had probably passed as I kept walking down this snow-covered road. My mind was slowly getting duller and I felt my fingers numb as the cold got more unbearable. My face was slowly growing icicles and I felt my beard and my hair getting heavier. The wind was also slowly picking up and to make matters worse? My body was shivering uncontrollably and I started clenching my arm around my body as I kept moving on.
I need to find shelter or start a fire, if not I would die from hypothermia and this second chance would have been wasted.
As if my wish had been answered, I saw something in the distance, a cabin! I’ve never been so happy to find an actual sign of life in this damn winter wonderland. I saw that the windows were either covered or barricaded but didn’t care as I ran towards the cabin.
I thought it would be farther since of its size but to my surprise? It was closer than I thought and smaller. My head was slightly above the roof. I guess it's buried under the snow, well it's either that or a dwarf lived in here. I quickly looked for the door and found it was also smaller as well.
I crouched down and banged the door and started screaming for help, “Hello?! Is anyone in there?! Please! I need help!”
I waited for a response but nothing. I tried once more but again, nothing. I looked through one of the barricaded windows and saw that no one was inside. I walked back to look at the chimney and saw that it wasn’t smoking.
With not a lot of options left and desperation slowly setting in my mind, I tried to open the door. First I had to find a handle. Lucky for me, it was sticking out of the snow. I wouldn’t have noticed it if it wasn’t for the light shining off of it. I would have tried pulling it but something was wrong, it was slightly larger than a usual door handle. I disregarded it as an engineering flaw and tried opening it anyways.
I tried pushing and pulling but nothing happened. I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t open, so I tried kicking it down but that failed as well. I started looking for another way in by going around the cabin. Luckily, I saw a window that wasn’t barricaded. It was also open and I saw snow pouring inside.
I ran quickly to the broken window but rather than crawling inside the broken window, I slipped on the snow and fell inside. Okay, I should’ve been more careful as anything can and most likely will kill me at this point. I shrugged off the snow and would have stood up straight if I didn’t underestimate the height of the house.
I smacked the back of my head on one of the beams of the house and I was just hunched over. Jesus who lived in this house? Dwarves? And I was joking with myself with that question a while ago.
Rather than stand up, I instead crouched down out of pure instinct. I could’ve hunched over or squatted down a bit and would’ve been fine but I don’t want to accidentally hit my head again on the roof. I looked around my general area to determine my location in the house.
There was a table with no chairs but hay on the floor, a door to either the pantry or a storage closet, a row of counters, and a barrel... I’m guessing I’m in a kitchen or storage area. I noticed that the table was overturned and contents from the cabinets were spilled on the floor. I also noticed that there were no tiles or coverings on the floor but just bare dirt, I guess whoever lived here didn’t have a lot of money. There was also a doorway on the other side of the kitchen to hopefully the living area or common rooms.
I made my way to the doorway and entered a somewhat wide room with once again no chairs but some more hay on the floor. Just like the kitchen though, the whole place was a mess as well with cabinets turned over and furniture was torn up. Once again, I couldn’t think much of it or why the whole house was like this. I saw a fireplace made out of stone and I quickly started looking for firewood but found none.
My body was getting numb and I knew I’m running out of time. Out of desperation, I started looking for furniture to tear down to use as fuel. Lucky for me, there were damaged furniture and torn up ones scattered everywhere. I started gathering the broken pieces first, like sticks and anything small that can be burnt and tossed them to the fireplace. Next, I grabbed the hay and placed them near the fireplace to use as kindling.
With fuel and kindling out of the way, I need to start the fire. I started scuttling my way to the kitchen to find a match. I looked around the messy kitchen trying to find where the matches were, I checked the shelves, the pantry, even the floor but found nothing.
I looked around trying to find something I can use as a spark and as if whatever god was up there, I found something that was a lifesaver. A piece of flint! I would have mistaken it for a rock if the light was shining on it.
I grabbed the piece of flint and quickly made my way back to the living room where I had gathered all the materials.
I now had all the pieces, I just had to start a fire. Think, think! What do I need to do first! I remembered that I had to create a spark and let it land on the kindling, which in this case, was a small bundle of hay. I also remembered that to create a spark, I need to hit the flint and steel, which was my knife, together to create said spark. It would have been an easy task if only had had two hands. I couldn’t just place the flint or the knife on top of the kindling without smacking either one of the tools away or burning myself.
As I struggled to think of some way to light a fire, I had thought of an idea that could probably work, all I needed was something to hold my knife up while I hit the flint on the knife.
I grabbed a piece of broken wood about the size of a small stick from the fireplace and placed it on the ground near the fireplace. Next, I leaned my knife on the stick, with the blade facing upwards, and then stepped on the handle of the blade with my foot. I then placed the kindling below the tip of the blade and finally grabbed the flint.
With a prayer to whatever God exists up there, I started striking the flint on my knife, trying to make it spark. After a few attempts, I managed to make it spark. Oh finally! I thought to myself as I continued, hoping to finally light the kindling.
A few more attempts and I finally noticed that embers were finally forming on the kindling. I quickly grabbed the now slowly heating up kindling and gently placed it on the fireplace. I grabbed my knife, prodding the embers a couple of times hoping that it would finally light up.
“Come on… Light already…” I kept on prodding it with my knife.
I noticed that the embers were slowly dying out, “No no no no… NO! Please don't you dare fucking die!” I shouted at it and kept prodding it more hoping to light it.
I saw the embers of the kindling dying out with the fireplace not lighting up. I tried lighting another kindling but I was getting too weak to light one. I sighed in defeat and laid down next to the fireplace. I guess this is it, this is where my story ends… I thought to myself as I felt the cold slowly enveloping me.
Then, I felt a small warmth coming from the fireplace. I noticed that the ember wasn’t actually out but I accidentally buried it under the wood and was poking some piece of wood. I then noticed the fireplace was slowly being enveloped by flames. Eventually, the fireplace lit up some part of the room and a slowly but increasing wave of warmth and heated air.
Then, the fireplace roared with life! As a brilliant flame engulfed the whole fireplace, lighting the whole room with light and life. This felt good. I raised my fist and shouted in victory! Excited about the fact that I was able to light a fire despite the fact that I was suffering from hypothermia. You know? I wonder why I was able to keep a straight mind? I don’t think I’ll find an answer to that immediately.
I finally laid down on the bundle hay on the floor and took a rest and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like this second chance wasn’t going to waste after all… I then fell asleep from exhaustion.
----
We walked down the halls of the castle heading to the elder unicorn section near the highest point of the castle while carefully balancing a tea set the Princess made me carry on my back. I felt an unnerving presence coming from the princess as we walked down the halls. I could tell that she’s annoyed and was running out of patience.
“Princess,” I begged, “You know Starswirl strictly stated that he must not be disturbed when he is in his room studying.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, all I want to know is the progress with his spell to end this Faust forsaken winter.” Princess Platinum said as she picked up the pace, clearly obvious that she’s in a hurry.
“If he had any progress done, then he would’ve told some pony to deliver the news to you,” I said as I maintained my pace with the Princess.
“Another report or a quick pass by would have been nice at the very least!” She shouted as she glanced at me.
Silence filled the air for a while as the Princess was trying to find a question to distract herself from the responsibilities and duty of a leader.
“When was the last time you saw your mentor, Clover?” She asked in a demanding tone.
“L-last time?” I stammered, “About a week ago…”
“And you were the last one that saw him correct?”
“Yes, Princess…” I answered as a worrying sensation started forming in my head. I hadn’t realized that it’s been over a week since the last time I saw him. He used to teach me every single day and give me at least a day or sometimes two to rest, but never a week.
“The last time he gave me a report on that spell of his was more than 2 weeks! Can you believe that?!” The Princess threw her hoof up in annoyance.
“Well, making a new spell isn’t that easy.” I tried defending the reason for my mentor’s disappearance, “It takes weeks, perhaps months to even make a new one.”
“Yes, I know that but we don’t have a month to wait because we have stack upon stack of problems!”
“And what are those problems, princess?”
“First! We have about a month left of food! Second! We are running out of time and my father’s patience is running low-” She paused as she levitated a teacup from the tea set on my back as she cleared her throat, “I’m sorry, where was I again?”
“You were complaining about running out of time and that your father's patience was running thin?”
“Ah yes, thank you, for reminding me.” She continued, “Thirdly! Our gatherers aren’t gathering wood for the fire and whatever can be scraped from the woods for whatever Faust forsaken reason! And thirdly and most importantly! THIS FAUST DAMNED WINTER!”
“What about the winter?” I asked as I suddenly realized my own mistake of asking.
“WHAT ABOUT IT?! Well, you see… IT HAS EVERYTHING DO WITH IT!” Princess Platinum started a long rant, damning this winter for being the cause of everything horrible things that have happened to her life, not being able to drink wine, blaming the pegasus for causing the winter to extort more food from the Earth Pony tribe, and many more that will certainly make anypony or anyone annoyed and hoping for a sweet release of death instead and she ranted for hours.
“...AND THAT IS WHY THE UNICORNS ARE THE SUPERIOR RACE OF ALL THE PONIES!! -Wait, where are we?” Princess Platinum looked around confused, trying to figure out where we were in the castle.
“Princess…” I answered in a tired voice and slumped down on the floor with the tea tray not in my back anymore and placed on the floor, “We’ve been walking for hours and we passed the hallway leading to Starswirl’s tower many times, and we’ve been walking in a circle for hours…”
“I’ve been ranting for that long?” Princess Platinum pondered, “Huh, well then Clover, onwards to Starswirl then! Get your flank up and let's go and this time, you lead the way because I'm quite famished from that awfully long rant.”
“Yes, Princess…” I sighed as I stood up, ignoring the tea set.
“Well, Clover,” Princess Platinum said as she looked to the large door,“Despite the delay, we have finally made it.”
“It took us more than an hour to get here…” I mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
We looked at the door, leading to the hallway of the Elder unicorns. The door had a mural of six unicorns, standing side by side with one distinct unicorn, wearing a cloak and wizard hat covered in stars leading them with a hoof raised up pointing towards the sun and moon.
“It's been too long the last time I’ve looked at this door...” Princess Platinum said as she stared at the mural of the door.
Silence lingered on for a while, I glanced around the area, seeing if anything was wrong but nothing seemed to be out of place. The torches were lit, the floor and the walls were clean.
“So, shall we?” She turned her head and looked at me in the eyes.
“Princess,” I tried speaking up in a sort of tired tone, “This is going to be a waste of time…”
“Well, I do hope this isn’t a waste of time, for time is of the essence, especially now.” She said.
We both stared at each other in silence, seemingly expecting something. The Princess broke the silence by saying, “So? Are you going to open the door or what?”
“Me? Couldn’t you open it yourself, your highness?” I countered.
“I would but I wouldn’t want to waste anymore of my precious energy that I have unfortunately spent on walking!” She complained.
“Alright fine…” I sighed.
My horn lit up as I used my magic to push the stone doors open but it didn’t budge.
“Why isn’t it opening?” Princess Platinum asked
“It’s too heavy-” I struggled speaking as I focused my magic on opening the door, “Could you please help me?”
“Have you tried pulling darling?”
“Oh uh, not yet.” I tried pulling the doors open and it worked with little effort done.
A loud creak echoed as the doors were opened, revealing a large cavern in the mountain. The cavern was lit in white light using enchanted gems that would last for many moons. Beams of marble held the hallway in place to ensure that it wouldn’t collapse, even in an earthquake. We walked down the halls, passing by paintings and statues of former elder unicorns.
After a long walk of silence in this maze-like cavern, we finally arrived at the door leading to Starswirl’s tower. It was a large double door made from stone with a face of an old and wise looking unicorn carved into it.
“You know, Clover,” Princess Platinum commented on the door, “Whoever made this door must have had a lot of patience in carving this.”
“What do you mean by that, your highness?” I asked.
“You see, darling-” She explained, “This door, well the carving to be precise, wasn’t made using precise lasers. Laser cuttings can make it look clean and perfect but it seems like that whoever made this didn’t want to be perfect. Rather, tools were used to create this which is made obvious by the imperfect cuts and chips on the stone itself which would have taken up to half a day if one works nonstop.”
“What a shame unfortunately, the carver was a brilliant artist. Could have gone for perfection using magic rather than using tools.” Princess Platinum sighed.
“That’s…” I looked at the carving uninterested in it but pretended to be, “Interesting, your highness?”
“I know right?” She stared at the door again.
I wondered at what could be behind these doors? I thought of an endless amount of possibilities. Could it be a large cavern with a bunch of bookshelves, scroll and artifacts gathered by Starswirl from his journeys? Could there be some kind of ancient and forbidden creature behind this door as well?! I felt my legs shake as I had a rush of excitement to the possibilities to what could be behind this door? Well, I guess I’ll never find out. Or so I thought
“Well, your highness-” I said as I turned around and started walking away,”As much as I would like to enter Starswirl’s room and learn the progress of the spell, we best be on our wa-”
“Open the door, Clover.” Princess Platinum cutted me out.
“I’m sorry what?”
“You heard me, now open this door.”
“I- I can’t, your highness.” I answered.
“Why not?” Princess Platinum demanded.
“Because-” I explained, “The door is magically enchanted to let nopony but Starswirl himself enter.”
“Ugh, of course you're not going to open the door…” Princess Platinum ignored me.
“Your highness? What are you doing?” I said as I suddenly realized that I was too late
I saw her horn glow and a magical aura matching her aura on the door. I quickly positioned myself behind her back and braced for impact from a magical backlash.
But all I heard was a loud creaking as if a door was being opened. It can’t be, it must be something else. I know the door was enchanted to keep anyone but Starswirl out. I slowly opened my eyes hoping to see that it was just in my head and the princess was being flung towards me.
I saw that the door was indeed open. Behind a seemingly grand and large door, was a small opening, small enough that only a single pony can fit in without feeling cramped.
“Well, that was kinda over dramatic.” Princess Platinum spoke first, “A large door just to reveal a small opening that a pony can barely fit in, let alone Starswirl and his long horn to fit in.”
I remained silent as I looked at the small entrance. Why make another hallway just right after another one? It felt kind stupid and needless at this point since the only way to get in is by magic since the door was made out of stone anyways. But what bothered me more was the fact that there was no enchantment on the door.
Starswirl told me that the door was magically enchanted to keep unwanted guests out, I even saw him enchanting it as well with my own eyes. So the question was, why was the enchantment gone?
We entered the small entrance way and found out that it was actually a stairway going up from what I assume to be going to Starswirl’s tower. The stairway was quite large, going in a spiral going upwards.
“Stairs,” Princess Platinum started complained, “Behind a seemingly large and over the top door, just to reveal a small opening that leads to stairs? What is wrong with him? And why in Faust’s name does it have to be stairs?!”
“Well, your highness,” I said while nervously looking at the stairway, “We can always go back?”
“No, we have made it this far, we can’t turn back now!” Princess Platinum said.
I could tell that she was somewhat intimidated by the amount of stairs that she has to climb. Despite that fact, she knew what she wanted to meet Starswirl, so with a determined heart, she gulped and made her first few steps on climbing the stairs to Starswirl’s tower. I merely sighed and followed her as well.