~SS~
I looked at my glittering gold aura of magic engulfing my quill as I carefully dipped it into the black liquid ink. I levitated my quill just above my parchment of paper, but all I saw was a black swiggly line after a very loud door swung in with a bang. I turned around to see a grey unicorn with golden armor of a royal guard rushing in.
“Star Swirl, there was something falling from the sky practically igniting it, and I also saw something closed behind it, I think. Luckily it’s almost evening so I don’t think anypony noticed, and it looked like it landed just West of here in the forest,” informed the guard.
I looked up quickly and said, “I’ll be out to inspect the object and please let me go out alone this time. The last time I went to check up a meteor, you guards made much of an uproar, that I almost went bonkers.”
“You’ve already gone beyond bonkers,” the guard mumbled under his breath thinking I wouldn’t hear that.
“You’ll be surprise how much you can learn from this geezer,” I snicker as I pointed to my head. “And don’t tell Celestia about this,” I quickly added.
The guard nodded as he left with only the sound of his hooves clicking the polished tile floor. I glance up at my grand cavern walking out of my athenaeum. Some of the books I read piled high on top of a table with some quills and empty inkwells. I discard some of the clutter on the desk, raise the books and put them in their proper places. I levitate my saddlebag to my back with several other items and I grabbed my hat with the bells giving cheerful dings as I chuckle.
***********
I lit my horn as I trotted deeper in the woods. I stopped to look at the map the guard gave me after I left Canterlot with a mark in a couple of places the object could possibly land. I thought to myself, I wonder if that object is just another silly Pegasus that hurt him or herself or maybe a meteor, or just maybe, it’s a comet with new minerals on it to examine. But whatever that was from the sky, must be a new discovery. I start to trot faster as my old bones can take.
I mumble to myself as my front hoof stroke my beard, “Hmmm….judging from where the guard sighted it and the wind speed at that time, it should be somewhere ahead of me.”
I looked up suddenly seeing about a 2 meters deep crater with a diameter of about 3 meters. I carefully walk towards the edge of the crater to look inside it hoping it is a new mineral I could harness and learn from. Looking down I see instead, a female unicorn with mane blonde hair and a tan looking coat who looks about to turn into her adult years, lying down in a fatal position.
“Oh, Celestia,” I gasped as I jump down hurriedly.
When I searched for any damage or bleeding on the mare I didn’t see anything and I also used a spell to scan for any internal damage. I sensed something strange in her biology.
“Impossible, from the height she fell and the force that she put into this crater she should be dead or at least hurt in some way….. Oh dear,” I say astounded as a glowing mist came out of her mouth, and then she shifted.
~J~
I felt a soft breeze and heard a faint chime of a bell. I thought that I was in a dream with fake stars hanging above me in a dark blue fabric sky and a bell jiggling above me.
“Miss, Miss. Oh dear, are you hurt?” questioned the bell.
I shot open my eyes to see an old gray bearded horse with a horn; a navy blue hat with yellow stars and light blue moons in various moon positions on it and a matching cape. I scanned around seeing where I landed and saw that I was in a hole in the ground with a unicorn. That’s new, I thought, and I look around to see were the voice came from.
The unicorn coughed and spoke, “Excuse me my dear, but may you explain why you fell from the sky and survived crashing into the ground making a crater about 2 meters unscathed?”
I look at him in surprise thinking, a unicorn is talking to me and my goodness he has a beard.
Dumfounded I stammer, “Yyyoouuu… cccccan… talk….?”
“Of course I can talk, what do you think I am, primitive? And for the second time my dear, will you explain how you survived a fall of that altitude, how you got there, and why were you up there in the first place?” he huffed.
I looked at him strangely, but I start to try to speak again trying not to look dumb. “I fell from a shhhhi….” I started to feel a pain in my head again and I lost consciousness again.
~SS~
I took another stop to rest by the trees again this time I almost dropped the unconsciousness mare. I sighed, a mare that survives an unbelievable height and not hurt in many ways. I found a reasonable size boulder to sit on and took out a hanky to wipe it a bit and set the mare beside the boulder, while I sat on the top of it. I looked back at the sleeping mare and again another strange gold mist came out of her for a second time since she woke up in the hole. It still questions me how she is doing that. At first, I thought I was just seeing things as an old stallion as myself would start to see things at my age, but she was breathing out the mist. Maybe it was a spell she used before she crash landed here or somepony used on her or that well maybe not, but I could guess. I conjured up another spell and a cup of hot tea materialized in front of me with my golden magic aura raised it to my mouth as I blew the steam away. I took a sip as I looked around me in the wilderness. Mmmm, good tea. The sun is setting so I had to make a camp here. Golden magic surrounded the area as I rose and focused to make shelter.
~J~
I sat straight up looking at where I am. I saw that I am in a blue tent and I am on top of a mat with a blanket over me. Beside me were a cup of some kind of liquid with leaves in it and some kind of small domed cake with blue things on top of it. I move towards the cake to pick it up, but instead of hands that tried to pick it up they were hooves! I quickly got up, but I fell down faster than attempting to stand, landing on my front han… hooves. I felt my face and found a muzzle and I looked at the rest of me. I have a bright color gold tail that matches my hair. And vanilla coloured fur….skin…coat?
“EEEEKKKK, I’M A HORSE”, I shriek.
“Actually you are a pony well specifically a unicorn, just like me”, said the bearded unicorn, as his bells jingled he added, “Peculiar you do not know this yourself.” He duck into the tent and then sits in front of me.
“H...how did I get here?” I ask. I felt my head and oh, I indeed have a horn.
“I carried you here and should I ask you the same question?” he replies in a calm tone.
“I was in space then I’m here….” I answer, still feeling my horn.
“Space… well, since I don’t want to be a stranger my name is Star Swirl, and who might you be miss,” he question as he took his hat off.
“My name is Jenny,” I responded.
Star Swirl tilt his head slightly then softly he said, “That’s a strange name, and I could infer that you are not from around here are you?” He then walked out of the tent placing the hat back on, but still kept talking. I looked out of the blue tent and saw a glowing ball of light coming out from behind the woods which I think is called a moon and the sky in brilliant soft lavender. I never saw the moon or sky before and it was the most beautiful sight I have seen and I heard the sun was a brilliant light. I look back at the old unicorn.
I nodded my head. Is this what being a unicorn feels like? “So by, around here, what do you mean, what is this place/dimension/time err… Star Swirl?”
Star Swirl gave me a confused look, and said, “BY CELESTIA, that fall might’ve been worse than I thought, my dear, we are in Equestria of course, where else?”
I had a strange feeling in my gut, do ponies even have guts? I don’t know, I tried walking towards him, but all I accomplished was a face full of dirt.
“What are you doing”, Star Swirl asked comically.
“Oh, you know, just resting”, I snapped back in a sarcastic tone.
“One front hoof first, opposite hind hoof, then the opposite of those two”, Star Swirl advised.
~SS~
Seeing Jenny is like looking at a foul walking for the first time. I wonder how she doesn’t know how to walk, based on her age, how did she survive this long? She was ‘attempting’ to eat her blue berry muffin with her hoof and almost drop it a couple of times if not for me.
“Not meaning to be rude, but how do you not know how to walk, remember that you’re a pony, what Equestria is or, do you know who Celestia is”, I asked.
“Cele-who?” she sounded genuinely confused; this was not a gag act.
“BY CELESTIA, you are in for a good lesson Jenny”, I shouted, which caused Jenny to fall again, “Whoops, sorry, now we have to get going.” I used my magic to lift her up, who knows when she’s going to figure that out. That was a big mistake.
“HEY!!! HOW IN THE WORLD AM I FLOATING!!” she screamed, as she struggled to get down.
“Calm down, calm down, it’s just my unicorn magic, and as I said before, there’s going to be a lot of explaining”, I ended.
She then looked around until she stared right at her cutie mark. Which is an hour glass with a gold mist wrapping around it.
“Why do I have a tattoo on my bum?” she questioned surprisingly.
Well I almost facehoof at that. This is going to be a long lesson.
***********
We walked out of the woods into the nearby area of Canterlot.
She gasped, “Wow is this Equestria looks like?”
“No, this is just part of it, Equestria is, how do you say this… our nation or country, follow me, we can see much more at my observatory”, I said starting to trot, oh wait, Jenny. The next reply I heard was sort of muffled, but I understood clearly.
“Kunmph yuhgck sough dmond”, Jenny said as she was trying to spit out dirt and pebbles.
At last we are at my observatory, “Here we are… what are you doing?”
Jenny was running around, surprisingly not losing balance, and looking through my astronomy equipment, “This is fantastic! All the things you see from here, a few nebulae, many beautiful stars, oh that galaxy over there I think I know what that is…”, she suddenly sounded depressed, “Oh father, you must’ve visited everything by now, and here I am lost as ever knowing nothing”, she started to sob, so I decided to cheer her up.
“How about you look at Equestria and learn about its history, and how to use magic, then you wouldn’t be knowing nothing”, I suggested, and it worked, her tears started to dry up. “The balcony is this way”, I said leading her to the outside terrace.
~J~
“So this is Equestria”, I said in awe at the country lit up by bright moonlight. In the distance I could see a forest behind and a very small town that looked like it’s still under construction. “What’s that over there, that dark forest”, I asked, I don’t know how I know this, but a feeling told me that dark forest was different, very different from any forest.
Star Swirl’s face expressed a very grim tone, “That is the Ever-Free forest, nothing is known about it except that the plants grow in suspicious ways, and those that go in there to investigate never come back the same.
“Oh, what’s up there”, there was a mountain range in the distance, but it was very hard to see, I used the telescope to get a better view.
His tone stayed the same, “That is the Crystal Kingdom.”
“Well I don’t see any crystal… or a kingdom”, I said, looking through the telescope.
“Long ago, the Crystal Kingdom was ruled by an evil king who used anger and hatred to control his people, the dark energy reflected across Equestria, forcing Princess Celestia to take action, but one day the kingdom just vanished, but those who wander in the mountains might be able to feel the evil king’s power”, answered Star Swirl.
After that I just decided to not ask about any dark and gloomy places, “So, this princess you talk about, who is she?”
“She’s our ruler and superior being and my friend.” replied happily Star Swirl.
“So does she have a family, like a queen or something”, I wondered.
“She used to have a sister, Princess Luna, both working in harmony to raise the sun and moon after me and my colleagues were getting too old ”,started Star Swirl, his eyes turning in a way like my father look when I last saw him, dark and sad, so I interrupted him.
“Okay, I get the point, Equestria has trouble… um let’s move onto magic”, veering on another topic.
Star Swirl’s face lit up in giddiness, “What a lesson this is going to be!”
~SS~
MAGIC 101… Unicorn magic is complex and powerful; spells come from the desire of the conjurer using his or her knowledge. The knowledge of everyday properties of elements, connections from one object to another and the sense of space between several places can create simple spells of conjuring, switches, and transportation. An important aspect to give the spell life is summoning your energy through your horn and releasing the compact energy to your target creating an aura connection between both your horn and target.
Jenny, having pony knowledge of a 4-year old colt (which is not a compliment to anyone), is surprisingly an ace at magic. I couldn’t believe my eyes when she easily teleported across the room, and to the bakery to get some muffins, yum.
“Teleportation spells are for advanced unicorns, where in the world did you learn to master it in a minute of lessons," I asked, wiping a crumb from my mouth, some of them did fall on my beard, but I dust it away.
“Must’ve run in the family," murmured Jenny with a smirk.
“What," I asked.
“What," Jenny dodged, “Whelp moving on, uh how do you conjure objects?”
“You, in full detail, think up the object and it’s properties in your mind, make sure not to leave any detail out, how about you start out staring at this quill and ink as a model," I said gesturing towards my ink bottle. It took Jenny awhile to finish staring at it and she set off to work. It was magnificent; she created an ink bottle in less than a second.
“Great work Jenny now try to use it with a transportation spell, first you levitate it then you move around to where you want, now first try to lift it up and when you’re ready, write a word," I said, getting all excited. She tried lifting up the feather, with her aura surrounding it, but she lifted both the quill and the ink bottle.
“Jenny… did you forget to make the ink a liquid, rather than a solid," I sighed.
~J~
“Magic isn’t that hard if you get used to it,” I announce, more to myself then Star Swirl who is in a different room, as I practice writing with a quill. My magic was a kind of familiar blue color like I saw it somewhere from a glance, but I shook it away.
I look back at the book Star Swirl gave me to take notes on my paper. I decided it would be easier to look at the whole book then write it down. Lifting the book up, I flip through the pages scanning every single word till the end. From memory I wrote everything in a couple of summaries for each chapter. I finish like that a few more times with the last two other books Star Swirl gave me. Once I finish I roll the scroll up and place it on top of the desk. I look up at the many books that are in each shelf that are neatly organized. I glance down at my cutie mark.
“Star Swirl said that a cutie marks show us what we are supposed to do and what our destinies are. So what does an hourglass with a gold mist wrap around it supposed to mean?” I whisper to myself, “Hourglasses are like a timer. Father said that Time Lords are much more than what I could imagine… time.”
“Star Swirl?!” I shouted.
“Yes?” he replied.
I look at the direction his voice came from, while using my magic I held the scrolls I was working on and followed where his voice was. He was watering a garden that look a little similar to the one I saw long ago except a little smaller.
“Do you have a book on anything time related and umm space?” I asked.
Tapping his chin he answer, “I do actually, they’re over by the hourglass over there,” pointing at the hourglass, “And the space and universe subject is over by the planetarium,” pointing towards a door that was marked planetarium. “Would you like me to help you with looking for some books you might want to read? Oh and before I forget, did you finish the first book I gave you?”
“Oh ya here and I also finished the others you assigned me,” I added, as I levitate the scrolls in front of him.
“I say, that was rather quick, but any who come along Jenny,” he announce as he took the scrolls and put it in his bag neatly. He trotted toward the time books with me on his tail.
***********
It is impressive how Star Swirl has so many books, but the presentation… not so much of an impression. We arrived at a dusty little nook in a part of his library, and as he said, there was an enormous hourglass in the center.
“So this is your time section,” I said in awe, “Though, not as much as the rest of your library.”
“Well, time is complicated, little is known about it, how it functions, its origin, almost nothing,” Star Swirl said blankly.
I stared at the hourglass, it’s all dusty and the supporters look rusty, but still strong. An hourglass, just like my cutie mark. Does this mean my destiny revolves around this heap of sand in glass? Probably not, but then again Star Swirl is a main researcher on astronomy, he was also named Star Swirl, does that mean… stars were his destiny from birth? I tried to shake off the feeling, but it lingers on the back of my mind.
“Jenny are you okay, you’re seem dazed,” wondered Star Swirl.
“No, no, I’m fine thank you, um, what is this hourglass for, is it just a decoration,” I asked.
“The use of the hourglass has lost its meaning overtime, as I mentioned before me and 5 other colleagues work to raise the sun and moon before Celestia and Luna, that hourglass let us know when is the right time to raise them through rotation cycles of the glass, that is until the two sisters, alicorns, had the ability to understand the sun and the moon with harmony,” answered Star Swirl, “but you were right, I keep it in my time section for display.”
While he was explaining I was transfixed on the hourglass, then I saw something flash in the glass’ semi-reflection. I looked around, but saw nothing except the little passage way towards the planetarium. I grinned, Time and Space, just then I spotted a book near the entrance. As I levitated it, I noticed there was no title, even though the book seems very important. It was a deep, but faded blue, with loose papers stuck in it and scribbles everywhere. I sat down holding the book with my hooves, before I realized that I was holding the book with my hooves, I saw many notes in the margins.
Not Complete, Error?, How does it add up?, Crazy idea, Almost got it, but on the last page a big red X was marked and in big letters was the word FAILURE.
“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” shouted Star Swirl using his magic to send the book back in its place.
“Why? What’s in it, and why was it a failure,” I asked angrily.
“That book, is none of your business, do you understand?” said Star Swirl in a slightly more calm tone.
“Fine, I won’t touch it,” I promised.
“Good,” replied a pleased Star Swirl.
~SS~
That was close, I thought. So instead of allowing Jenny to go in deeper with that old research of mine I steer her to the planetarium which was in my main field of expertise.
“Wow…” Jenny stared astound at the projection of my observations.
“This is my research of this galaxy from stars to planets which includes there information from their distance, luminosity, density, temperatures, date in which it was found and other information I labeled,” I inform proudly.
“Wow even star charts,” sighed Jenny, “Wait… You said the sun and moon rise and set through the command of the Princesses, right?”
“Yes of course, why,” I answered.
“Well for most other planets, day and night appear as the planet rotates on its axis, that’s also the reason behind seasons,” Jenny explained.
“For a pony who lost her memory, you sure do know astronomy, but yes you are correct, as I observe this galaxy, I also observe our close neighboring galaxies and it seems that they rotate and revolve around like you said, but our planet seems to be stationary,” I respond.
“STATIONARY?!?! How do you have weather and seasons?” Jenny shouted.
“Weather is primarily controlled by the pegasi race, and everypony helps out during seasonal changes, plus a stationary planet means more accurate star charts since the astrological figures won’t truly move,” I thoroughly explained.
“It does kind of make sense,” she sighs unsurely, “but the physics is still funny to me.”
“There are billions and billions of galaxies out that are different you know, and infinite worlds out there that are unique. That why I love to astronomy it shows new worlds I can discover, while studying them,” I explain, “I maybe getting old and I may not see all of those worlds but I want to discover as much as I can in this life time.”
At first Jenny went from surprise, distance, then smiling, “Well that reminds me of someone that had a similar dream as you. You know you should meet him someday, you two would really bond over this.”
“Him?” I question.
“Nothing...” she sighed.
I knew that it wasn’t nothing, but I didn’t want to pressure her.
“It’s getting late and you look like you need some sleep, so I’m going to show you your room for now,” I declared.
“That would be nice thank-you,” she said thankfully.
“And Jenny, would you like to help me in town tomorrow with some items I need to gather?” I ask.
“Sure,” she smiled.