The Clone Wars: Friendship is Magic

January 8th, 2014

I started to come around, but kept still with my eyes closed. I could smell the gentle odors of a wood fire and heard the cracking of the timber from the walls to confirm I was indoors. Mixed with those smells was the musty and comfortable odor of books. I was lying on my back on a bed, but felt what was probably my robe bunched under my shoulders. At least, I thought it was my shoulders. They felt like my shoulders, but were further down my back than my shoulders were. Not to mention, my arms seemed to be attached higher when I shifted slightly.

The movement caused a wave of pain to assault the inside of my head. I drew on the Living Force to control it and was almost successful. However, I definitely knew I wasn’t on Seline anymore. The fire made the room warm, but it was not the fire that was responsible for the warmth I was feeling… or the blanket that was covering me. The warmth wasn’t anything physical.

I was inside a nexus in the Force. It was place full of warm feelings and light, knowledge and peace. Pushing my senses out a little further, I could feel the unmistakable presence of others near me. There were seven, no eight, lives around me. One was strong in the Force, another was sensitive to the Force, and a third seemed to be… it’s hard to describe, but it was strong while also not quite being sensitive to that strength. The rest were just alive, but one seemed to be smaller than the others.

“I think he’s comin’ around, sugarcube.” It was a female voice to my right. It was slightly husky, but also full of confidence. Not the smug kind that comes from arrogance, but the kind that comes from a hard day’s work done right. I was very familiar with that, as most of the Rangers I had come across used similar tones. However, the accent was unfamiliar.

“Well, it is about time,” another said near to the first. This one seemed to have an arrogance and upper class Chandrillan accent, but it was different somehow. Though, the arrogance was spot on. “Some ponies just have no thought for the schedules of others.”

“I don’t think he was planning to mess up our picnic on purpose,” another voice said, high and to my left. Like the first, this one sounded husky, but of the same manner. There was also a strange sound from around her, like she was rustling clothing rhythmically. I couldn’t be certain, but I think it was the same voice I heard before I passed out.

“At least his little friend is…” a light voice said close to my left ear, but was almost immediately interrupted. It was light, delicate, like crystals chiming in the wind.

“What do you think he was doing up there. I mean he was flying, but I didn’t think that you could pass out from just flying. Is that possible?” The voice seemed to not only interrupt the previous, but also seemed to be constantly interrupting itself without even taking a breath. It was moving up and down to my right and made my head pound a little more than it had before trying to follow it. There was the sound of a sprint being snapped with each movement.

“Give him some air,” a sixth voice said. I heard a clopping sound, like wooden shoes on wooden floors. It stopped beside the bed and I felt the familiar tingle of simple telekinesis though the Force. A cold compress landed softly on my head and the tingle went away. So too did my headache.

The combination of Force and the gentle smell of the herbal liquid on the compress caught my attention. I reached up to grab it and brained myself. I could feel my hand touching my forehead, but it felt like it was wrapped in a rock or something. I let out a bit of a moan, wondering how injured I actually was. I didn’t feel any pain from my arm or hand, though.

Cracking open my eyes, I saw that there was a brown hoof in front of my face. I’ve met some interesting tribal cultures in my travels, but none have ever fashioned plaster casts in the shape of animal limbs. Nor did they wrap them with a tan fur above the wrist. But that wasn’t the strangest part.

There was a blurry point in the top of my peripheral vision that I had to cross my eyes to see clearly. Sure enough, there was a conical shape, in the same tan color, coming out of my forehead. That was far stranger than any hoof-shaped cast. I mean, what medical purpose could such a thing perform?

I reached up and tapped it, the feeling translating down into my skull, but it also felt sensitive like it were actually part of my head. I was unsure what kind of medical herbs the locals had given me, but they must have been really good. Amazingly so, since I smelled mostly mint and asprilum root… headache herbs.

Looking toward the foot of the bed, I could see the unmistakable shapes of printed books on shelves. There were also piles of books around the floor. It was a library and seemed to be carved directly out of the inside of a rather large tree. There were windows showing a clear blue day, but a blanket of snow was built up on the sill outside the window.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to clear what must have been confusion. I opened them and looked to my right where the majority of voices had come from. Standing beside me, staring right into my eyes was a purple pony with darker purple mane and conical horn on its forehead. How cute.

Behind it there were three other ponies. Two were just standing and looking at me, the third was bobbing its head back and forth to some strange rhythm. One was white with a purple mane that was rather well styled and a conical horn. The second was orange with a yellow mane and a tan wide-brimmed hat. The third was pink with a pinker mane that looked more fluffed than styled.

I shook my head and looked on the other side. There was a yellow one there with pink hair and a pair of wings folded on her sides. Beside it was a small purple reptile with a green ridge. Above them, hovering with constantly flapping wings was a blue pony with multi-colored hair.

It was adorable that the owner of this library med center thing allowed their pets inside. They were all rather cute, too. Then I saw a small wicker basket that had a squirrel on it. Well, the rodent was lying on a pillow with a blanket pulled up around its arms. There was also a small scrap of cloth on its forehead.

Great, so the veterinarian is also the doctor and lives in a library with a bunch of ponies. What next?

“How are you feeling?”

“My head hurts a little, but it is fading,” I answered out of reflex and then froze, my mouth agape. I looked over at the talker with my eyes wide. The voice came from the purple pony with the horn. No. Yes. No… it couldn’t have. Ponies can’t talk. There must be another explanation.

“Ooooo,” the pink one said while bouncing up and down. “That’s a silly face. I wonder if that’s how he communicates!” She started making strange faces at me until the orange one absent-mindedly put its hoof in the middle of her face to hold it still.

“You’re… talking… ponies…” It wasn’t really a question. Nor, for that matter, was it a statement. My mind was reeling and didn’t seem to want to stop. I knew I should control it and center myself, as a Jedi should. However, my mind was having too much fun spiraling into a deep pit of crazy with sprinkles of cuteness to remember anything of my Jedi training at the moment.

“Well, of course, darling,” the white one said, flipping her purple mane back a little. “What were you expecting?”

I was so very confused. Maybe, I should start with something closer than anyone around me. That should help me to calm down; make sure I am not injured. I looked again at my hand and followed it to my arm, past my elbow, to my shoulder. I reached down, slipped my hand… er, hoof… under the blanket and lifted it, glancing down. Yup, I seemed to be a pony, too. I think I took it better than I should have.

I leapt forward out of the bed with a bit of a cry of fright. I seemed to move a little faster and lighter than normal. This was a bit of a problem because I was aiming for the edge of the open landing. Instead, I found myself about five meters over the wooden floor.

I braced for the fall, but didn’t. I thought that was rather odd, but felt something behind me. It was strange, like I was shrugging, but wasn’t using my shoulders. Glancing back, I saw a pair of tan wings (the same color as the rest of my body, but feathered) flapping. Further back, past my legs… um, my hind legs… I saw a blue tail coming out of my… well, a blue tail. It had a small braid on the side that was yellow.

I knew there had to be something interesting behind the fact that the wings were moving by themselves, but I decided to not invest too much thought in them because the idea of a five meter fall wasn’t really strongly appetizing at that particular moment. I willed myself to turn and found that the wings seemed to respond rather well. It was shaky, and I overcompensated, but I made my way back to the landing. When I got my feet under me… well, my hooves under me, the wings folded themselves up on my back. It was easier to keep my balance on all four legs than I thought it would be, but I took a couple of awkward steps away from the edge just to be safe.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” I let my… um, flank… slump down into what was surprisingly a comfortable sitting position, even on the hard wooden floor.

“Y’all fell out of the sky when Rainbow Dash over there did one of her sonic rainbooms.” the orange one said. I noticed, from this angle, that she had three symbols on her flank that looked like red-colored Corellian apples.

“What’s your name?” the yellow one said. Her voice was so light that I had to almost strain to hear it. She had three winged insects on her flank with blue bodies and pink wings.

“It’s obvious what happened,” the white one said. She had three bluish gems on her flank. “Rainbow Dash wasn’t paying attention, as usual, and knocked this gorgeous alicorn out of the sky.”

“I did nothing of the sort. There weren’t even any clouds around, let alone anypony else.” The blue one said. Her butt… err, flank… had a white cloud and multi-colored jagged line coming from the bottom.

A bit of an argument began between them all with their voices seeming to overlap one another, except for the yellow one who shrunk back from the conflict. I could pick up accusations, counter accusations, and a strange whistling noise coming from the pink one.

“Um,” I said, trying to interject in their raised voices. “What’s an alicorn?”

All at once, everyone stopped and stared at me. Everything was silent and I was about to ask again, but the pink one used her mouth to pull out a small silver pin from I have no idea where and dropped it. She had three balloons on her rump in blue and yellow. The gentle sound of it hitting the ground made her giggle uncontrollably.

“What do you mean, what’s an alicorn?” The purple lizard was looking at me.

“Of course, the lizard talks…” I sighed and let my front legs slump forward, my head resting on my crossed forearms… um… whatever.

“I’m not a lizard. I’m a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon,” the little purple dragon-lizard thing said. The purple pony, on the other hand, looked at him and he deflated slightly. “Okay, I’m a baby dragon.”

“Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle,” the purple one said, taking a step forward. Her flank had a pink star with white ones around it and I could see she also had wings. “This is Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Spike.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I said. “My name is Volund Starfire.”

“Psht,” Pinkie Pie snorted. “That’s a silly name.”

“Pinkie Pie,” Rarity chided her. “Be polite.”

“It’s okay. My friends call me Starfire.” I stood up on all fours again and inclined my head in an abbreviated bow. It was rather odd, but I felt it was a better position than lying down while… oh, whatever. It felt more comfortable than lying on the cold, hard floor.

“Then Starfire it is,” Rainbow Dash said, taking flight again and hovering over the edge of the landing. “What’s your cutie mark mean?”

“My whatie mark?” I looked at her and saw her staring rather intently at my butt… er, flank. I felt a little uncomfortable. I mean, sure she was cute (for a pony), but not even I was that forward with my flirting. That’s when I noticed that I had something on both sides of my rear, too. It was the symbol of the Jedi Order in blue inside a yellow circle.

For the next couple of hours, I explained to them what the Jedi were, what I was, and the events that lead me to fight the Sith on Seline. I went over the entire encounter with the Zebra… no, that’s Zebrak… no, Z-A-B-R-A-K. How the machine was activated and then the rainboom happened… to which Rainbow Dash corrected me, “sonic rainboom.”

Everyone was sitting around, listening to me talk, when I heard a familiar series of chirps and clicks. They were chiding and ended with a raspberry. I knew I forgot to mention something and was told about it.

“Oh, sorry. Alex also used his stunner on her just before the explosion.”

Fluttershy, who had been sitting quietly in the back of the group, seemed to bantha-rush right through Rainbow Dash, knocking her onto the bed, before stopping right in front of me. Her eyes were as wide as her grin and she practically screamed out, “you can understand him? I thought I was the only one who could talk to animals.”

“Animals?” It was a little more uncomfortable being nose-to-nose with one of them than it was having one staring at my butt. “No, I’ve been working with this little droid for years. I’ve been able to learn binary a little.”

“What’s a droid,” Applejack asked, looking over at the basket for some reason.

“Oh, I know, I know!” Pinkie Pie was lying down, but now she jumped to her feet with one leg straight in the air. “A droid is a mechanical being with a self-aware consciousness, as distinguished from a computer by having a self-contained method of locomotion!” Her smile seemed to take up most of her face and she made a bit of a squeaking noise.

“Pinkie,” Rarity said with an eye roll. “Let Starfire answer.”

“Actually, she’s right.” It was a little unnerving, but Pinkie was now blowing a small puff of dust between her hooves as if she hadn’t even said anything. She still felt slightly off in the Force, and I was starting to understand why.

There were another set of clicks and whistles from the other side of the bed. I looked over at him, but he wasn’t standing there. I looked down and saw the little squirrel lying in the basket. Then, putting two-and-two together, I realized that R2-LX was now a squirrel. Sure, why not. He noticed me regarding him and let out a raspberry.

“Really? You think you are the only one who has a bit of a problem? I’m a pony.” He laughed and laid back down, curling up under the small blanket.

“I don’t really see that as a problem, sugarcube,” Applejack said.

Twilight stood up and walked to one of the book cases, looking at the various titles. “Well, I’ll do some research about what happened to you, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to turn up. Though, since you are another alicorn, I think we should go see Princess Celestia.”

“Princess who?”

“She’s only the ruler of all of Equestria!” Rainbow Dash spread her arms wide as if I should have known.

“That means a trip to Canterlot!” Rarity about swooned with happiness.

“Will she be able to help me get home? Or, at least…” I looked down and thought better than to say get better. “…explain what happened?”

“If anyone would know, it would be the Princess,” Fluttershy said, blushing as she realized that she was still right in my face, less than a hoof-span from my nose. Hey, I got that one right! Her cheeks turned as bright pink as her hair and she made a bit of a gurgling noise. She melted back and turned to fuss with the blankets over Alex.

“You can stay here in the library, if you’d like, until we can figure out what’s going on,” Twilight offered as she walked down the stairs to the main floor. I followed, unsure of four legs on the steps, but it didn’t take me long to figure out the whole walking thing.

“Um,” I didn’t really know how to ask, but I had to anyway. “Is there some way that I could borrow a datapad or something to journal what’s happening. If and when I get home, the Council will want to know.”

“I can help, I think,” Spike said. He had a piece of parchment in one hand and a pen in the other. “But, what’s a datapad?”

This was going to take a while.