From forever, with love

The following days were like paradise on Earth to Starswirl. The warm and tender love her young guest had swaddled around him, now that he had accepted it, was blossoming and filling up all his soul with elation. It was as if he had been given a shot of pure happiness, or had drunk a julep of exaltation. He could not believe how his former existence, in hindsight, looked vain and void, now that she, with her genius and her moony cheerfulness, had shaken up his life. He realized that he had – unconsciously – been deprived of something all these years, been deprived of her. With her at his side, he felt complete, unfettered.

She had changed his life, not suddenly, but piecemeal. They – for they now shared the same room and bed – would wake up early in the morning. After their breakfast, they would work until noon, while the Sun would still be gentle and the air of the study breathable. Sometimes they would just have lunch in the kitchen, but most of the time she would quickly pack up some food in a wicker hamper, and they would picnic somewhere in the surrounding wood, comfortably tucked under the cover of one of the many stately trees. Then they would banter for a while, and she would eagerly listen to the stories Starswirl would tell her, tales of a remote past, valiant deeds of unknown heroes, legends of foreign and strange countries. Then they would sometimes cuddle but always nap for a while, frittering away the hottest hours in the relative coolness of the shadowy forest.

By the end of afternoon they would resume their work until dinner – unless she would prefer to care for the garden, and return in the house with colorful bouquets but grubby hooves that would leave mud tracks on the floor and make Starswirl grouch. After dinner, they would usually lie in the garden to enjoy the scarlet hues of the sunset and the coming out of the first stars. Then they would either discuss the results of the day or, most frequently, go to bed and canoodle way into the night.

⁂

The Summer was slowly passing away. Days were getting shorter, and the heat wave had been routed by a violent sally of thunderstorms. One evening, Starswirl lingered in the garden, despite the alicorn’s coaxing to go to bed.

“You don’t want to remain here for a while longer, sweetie?” he asked her, surprised.

“Why?” asked the alicorn. “I’m so tired tonight. If you want your evening cuddles, it’s now or never.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t remember tonight is the night of the tears of Centaurus, one of the biggest shooting star swarm of the year. If you watch the sky with me and espy one, you might make a wish!” explained Starswirl.

“Why did you not warn me about that before, you silly featherbrain?” the alicorn teased, as she lay close to him.

“I thought you would know,” joked Starswirl. “You’re so brainy usually…”

She did not respond, and both began to scrutinize the night in search of these tiny and flittering streaks. “I’ve seen one!” squealed suddenly the alicorn.

“Have you made a wish?” asked Starswirl.

“Hmmm… Let me think. Yep! Done!” the alicorn replied.

“Another here!” shouted Starswirl.

“Your turn to wish something!” chirped the alicorn.

“Already done!” declared Starswirl.

“Huh? So quickly? What was it?”

“I can’t tell you, darling, or it would break the magic!”

“Oh please! Oh please! Oh please!” pled the alicorn.

“Okay, okay! I give up. But didn’t you guess? I wished… you stay with me for the rest of my life, honey.” And he smiled to her.

“Why do you wish for something so obvious?” replied the alicorn.

They nuzzled tenderly. Tiredness found them warmly snuggled and, this night, they slept under the stars.

⁂

She was roused from her sleep by light shakes. She opened an eye, and saw that the Sun was already high in the sky. “Come on!” trumpeted the voice of Starswirl behind her. “Time to wake up! I’ve just received word that Princess Celestia is back and expecting us at three o’clock this afternoon!” He seemed very excited.

“Princess Celestia herself?” asked the alicorn in bewilderment. “Squee! But… But I don’t have any cloth appropriate to meet a princess! And how will we journey to her castle?”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” replied Starswirl. “I’ll conjure up some nice finery for you, and we will teleport in Canterlot, so the journey will be instantaneous. Come, quick! We just have two hours to find you a suitable dress, lunch and get ourselves ready.”

But ‘finding a suitable dress’ proved to be a somewhat touchier task than Starswirl had imagined, as her significant other turned out to be picky. At first the color was wrong; then she didn’t like the cut: she found the dress looked like an apron; next, the motif he had imagined was tasteless. After almost an hour of unsuccessful trying on, Starswirl resigned. He scribbled the formula of the spell he had been using on a sheet and left the bedroom in a huff. Ten minutes later, the alicorn was triumphantly showing up in the kitchen clad in an ultramarine pleated dress studded with tiny star-shaped golden sequins, bordered with a vermilion lining, as a foil.

“How do you find me?” asked the alicorn, whirling to show herself under every possible view. “This dress reminds me of the sunsets we love so much.”

“Coruscant!” confirmed Starswirl. “I’m sure the princess will love this couture.”

They lunched in a hurry, after what the alicorn spent a full hour grooming her coat, her mane, dabbing some make up and applying some mascara until she was fully satisfied. “Twenty to three,” announced Starswirl. “Time to go!”

“I’m ready!” nodded the alicorn.

“Then let’s go!” proposed Starswirl. He murmured some words; his horn briefly lit up, and both vanished in a flash of white light.

⁂

They materialized on a great square in front of the castle entrance. The alicorn glanced around: the center of the square was occupied by what appeared to be an ancient obelisk with strange characters engraved in. All around, and along the various streets, large villas were loosely sprinkled over a grassy turf, nestled behind ornamental fences. The overall impression was one of a luxurious and posh quarter. On the other side of the place, hidden behind high stone walls, stood a magnificent castle whose mighty white walls were spattered with large leaf-shaped windows; out of this sumptuous building, like branches from a bole, rose several slender, elegant crenelated turrets surmounted by tapered, dark slate-tiled spires, atop which short masts bore bright colorful pennants that waved freely in the wind. It was nothing short of a jewel of architecture, ablaze under the sunlight of that afternoon. The alicorn looked at it jaw-droppingly.

“Come on!” said Starswirl. “We don’t have time to loiter here! We’re expected.” He cocked his head towards the entrance and both set out. As they arrived at the wrought iron portal, the two burly guards stepped aside and bobbed before them. They proceeded along a large paved driveway meandering amidst a lush and verdant sward, and soon found themselves at the foot of the monumental stairs leading to the main gate. Standing above them, a lonely figure, clad in a glossy white uniform bearing a large symbolized golden sun, watched them intensely as they climbed the flight. When they reached the last steps, the handsome earth pony retreated somewhat, his blue eyes tracking the alicorn in a hardly concealed wonder. After a few seconds, he slowly turned his gaze to Starswirl.

“Starswirl the bearded, of course. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir. My name is Sunflame, I am her majesty’s usher in charge this afternoon. She will receive you in the throne room, where she invites you to wait patiently until she concludes her current meeting with the minister of foreign affairs. But I wasn’t notified you would be accompanied.” His eyes returned to the alicorn. He hesitated. “Although I gather than given the status of your… err… fiancée –––” He bowed low, then resumed: “I suppose that it would be disgraceful to debar her admittance.” He coughed. “Whom must I announce to her majesty?” he asked respectfully.

“It’s a surprise,” interjected Starswirl before the alicorn could answer. “Please refrain from informing the princess.”

“I understand and will comply to your command, Sir,” acknowledged Sunflame. “I was ordered to let you proceed unattended to the throne room. I gather you’re a personal friend of her royal highness. You may hereby go, Sir. Princess.” And he once again bowed, as Starswirl and the alicorn entered the reception hall.

“Why did he look at me in such awe?” whispered the alicorn as they walked along a large corridor. “And why did he call me princess?”

“No doubt he was overwhelmed by your beauty,” replied Starswirl. “And you do look like a princess. In fact, you’re my personal princess, darling!”

She pecked him, and both continued toward the throne room.

⁂

The two guards bobbed as they opened the lofty wooden double door, in which interwoven lunar and solar emblems were engraved, that led to the throne hall. The alicorn stepped in and gazed around in wonder. Wide stained-glass windows, depicting various high feats from Equestria’s myths and lore, were brightly sparkling in the afternoon light and illuminated the room in unreal hues; they were interspersed with large marmoreal plinths upon which stood monumental chryselephantine statues representing heroes of the three races. The alicorn recognized some legendary figures from the stories Starswirl had narrated her. At the far end, deposited on a round dais, a double high-seat, whose left was chiseled in white wood, while the right was made up of dark wood, was partially concealing a large flag unfurled over the back wall, flag on which two sketchy alicorns (Why do they look like me?), one white, bearing a solar cutie mark, and one ultramarine, bearing a crescent moon cutie mark, where chasing each other in an abstract ronde.

“This hall is breathtakingly awesome!” exclaimed the alicorn. “Plainly regal.”

“Indeed,” confirmed Starswirl. “And it’s also an architectural tour-de-force, as only the first quarter of the room, where we stand now, is built over firm ground. The rest is hovering over an enormous precipice, more than four hundred meters high. The throne is literally floating in the air. Protheus, the architect that designed the castle, said that –––”

He was interrupted by a loud blast of bugle, that resounded at length in the vastness of the hall, and was followed by what seemed a military salute and the crystalline laughter of a mare's voice.

“Here she comes!” whispered Starswirl. “Let’s make her a prank. Hide behind this statue, hurry!”

The alicorn rushed to the nearest plinth, rounded it and crouched behind. “Perfect!” said Starswirl. And he turned to face the doors, that swung fully open, revealing the familiar shape of Princess Celestia.

“Starswirl!” she exclaimed joyfully. “My dearest and most gifted magician.” She hugged him, then stepped backward a little. “Oh my!” she carried on, “But you look radiant! What did happen to you?”

“She happened to me, Princess,” answered Starswirl with a beam. “Darling?!”

Celestia turned her head away from him as the alicorn emerged from her hiding place. Her eyes widened in surprise, and the alicorn suddenly froze, transfixed, her gaze locked on the Princess.

⁂

As soon as she had caught a glimpse of Celestia, something had snapped in the alicorn’s mind, as if a lock long closed had suddenly broken under pressure, freeing a tidal wave of memories that sluiced into her (my name… is Twilight Sparkle!) consciousness. My parents… My brother… the exam at the school… the Princess… my cutie mark… Spike… Nightmare moon… Princess Luna… my friends… Ponyville… Starswirl’s last spell?… Alicorn… the Princess… the mission… go back in time for… oh no! Twenty-nine days and twelve hours. TWENTY-NINE DAYS AND TWELVE HOURS…

Starswirl’s smile had faded as he was looking alternately at the Princess and the alicorn, both petrified. Suddenly, the face of his partner revived. “For how long have I been here, Starswirl?!” she asked. Starswirl peered at her in incomprehension. “FOR HOW LONG!?” she screamed, panicked.

“What?” he answered, taken aback. “What’s the matter with you? Why do you–––”

“FOR HOW LONG, FOR EQUESTRIA’S SAKE!” she repeated, cutting him.

Completely fazed, Starswirl tried to remember. He hummed for a few seconds, then finally answered: “I think twenty-nine days. But why is it so important? Why do you yell at me so?”

Oh no! Oh no! OH NO! ‘Sweet Celestia, what does an alicorn at three am in my laboratory?’ Three am. Three o’clock this afternoon. Twenty-nine days… ‘Your return will be automatic: at the precise end of this period, not one second later, the spell will spontaneously work backward and carry you back in our present.’ No… NOOOOO!

“What time is it? PLEASE, O PLEASE, WHAT TIME IS IT?” she screamed again.

Starswirl’s miserably turned his eyes toward the Princess. “Two… Two to three,” stuttered Celestia.

“NOOOOOO!” wailed the alicorn. She crumpled to the floor and started sobbing. Starswirl rushed to her, and twined one foreleg around his mane. “What is it darling? I don’t understand. Why all these questions? Why do you cry?”

Twilight Sparkle opened her watery eyes, gazed desperately at Starswirl, pushed his foreleg aside and rose painfully on all fours. She pointed one hoof at the Princess. “You lied to me,” she blubbered. “YOU LIED TO ME! From the start, it was just a pretense. The gaseous form, the diplomatic mission, the absence of witnesses, everything. You knew it, you knew everything. This was just a devious ploy to lure me here. But why? WHY? AND WHY ME?” She paused, sniffled, then: “I hate you!” she declared in a now icy tone, full of hatred. “I hate you! And may you be cursed forever for what you’ve done to me.” Her voice broke.

Starswirl’s face was haggard. “Princess, I’m totally lost. Do you know each other?” he begged.

Celestia also looked dumbfounded. She shook her head in denial. “Starswirl, I swear by Equestria I never met this alicorn, nor do I know why she has it in for me,” she answered.

“She is right,” sighed Twilight. “She has never met me. Not yet.” She swallowed and whirled to face Starswirl. “Starswirl,” she said, “my name is Twilight Sparkle. I was sent from the future by this…” – she showed Celestia – “this wicked creature to inquire on… on… never mind. Now the spell is over and in a few seconds I’ll be carried back through time to my own epoch. And there’s nothing anypony can do to prevent it… But I love you, Starswirl… I do not want to part from you…” She started sobbing again.

“Retrochonia…” whispered Celestia as in a dream.

Starswirl’s eyes went from one alicorn to the other. “What? You’re not parting from me,” he finally said to Twilight. “I won’t permit it. No magic, however potent, will ever snatch you away from me. We are one, forever…” He came close to hold her, but exclaimed a “Oh?!” of dismay and retreated. His forelegs had passed through the body of Twilight as if she was just a ghostly image.

Twilight’s sight was becoming blurry. Oh no, the spell… it is already dragging me away. With difficulty, she squinted and saw that Starswirl was watching her, aghast. He briefly glanced at Celestia, speechless, as if hesitating for an instant, then unexpectedly bolted towards the far end of the room. The Princess yelled something she could not distinctly hear. Starswirl’s former words came back to her mind: Only the first quarter of the room, where we stand now, is built over firm ground. The rest is hovering over an enormous precipice, more than four hundred meters high. Sudden realization dawned on her. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” she desperately squawked, as the fuzzy shape of Starswirl jumped through the last window of the hall, that broke asunder with a loud tinkle.

Then the darkness fell.