The Adventures of Starswirl and Clover

Starswirl’s POV
After Clover had walked off, I mentally facehoofed myself. I was confusing myself more and more every second I spent with Clover. On one hoof, I had been taught to not be close to anypony my whole life; it could only lead to both of us getting hurt. But Clover had made the point that that was no way to live. I looked one last time at her before heading to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, my muscles were all sore from the uncomfortable cave ground. I walked to where our small fire had died out overnight. Groggily, I walked over to the cave entrance, and saw Clover trying (and failing) to teleport. She noticed me watching her and scoffed.

“What do you want?” she asked. I walked out into the clearing to meet her, but she took a step back.

I reached a hoof out. “Let me help you,” I replied. Clover turned her head away from me. A sharp sting shot through my heart. “Please.”

She turned her head back around to face me again. Several times she opened her mouth to speak, but each time she seemed unsure of what to say. Finally, Clover made up her mind. “Starswirl… are we friends?” she questioned.

I was relieved that it had been nothing more than a little doubt. To be completely honest, Clover was my friend, whether I liked it or not. “Of course, Clover. In fact,” I responded, “I think you’re the first real friend I’ve ever had.” Clover beamed and hugged me.

“So, I was thinking that today we could talk to some ponies, try to find out some things about this place,” she said when she finally released me. “I think there’s a library around here somewhere.” I nodded, and we began the trek to the small town.

As we were walking, I noticed Clover muttering some things to herself about spells and stuff. “So, what were you working on back there?” I asked curiously. She looked up at me, a little embarrassed. She shook her head.

“It’s nothing,” she replied, looking back at the ground. I moved in front of her, walking backwards on the dirt road.

“Come on, you can tell me,” I assured her. I noticed that most of our conversations consisted of me getting her to just talk to me, or vice versa.

Clover sighed. “Well… I was just teaching myself- not that I didn’t want you to teach me- some teleportation. I know I should’ve told you, but I was frustrated, and learning helps me deal with stress.” She looked up at me with her puppy dog eyes (not that she needed to). “You know?”

I chuckled to myself. “You’ll never be able to teach yourself, especially without any books. I’ll teach you; you can be my apprentice.” Clover raised an eyebrow.

“Really? I thought you didn’t trust anypony,” she replied. I had told her that, but I was beginning to rethink my statement.

“I don’t. But you’re not just anypony,” I told her. For a moment, I thought I saw a bit of a blush appear on her orange coat. But it soon vanished, and I saw her eyes widen. “Look out!” she warned. I was still trotting backwards, and I turned around a little too late. I crashed into a pony pulling a heavy looking cart.

I shook my head and stood up. “Hey!” a gruff voice shouted. I looked down to look at the stallion I had just run into.

Clover’s POV
It was terrible. Starswirl had run into the same tan pegasus that I had encountered the night before. He was pulling a cart full of various cooking ingredients- I noticed an unsettling lack of baking cider. Starswirl must have recognized the description, because I noticed him tense up when he regained his balance.

The pegasus growled and squinted his eyes to get a better look at us. His eyes widened as soon as he got a good look at me. “Well, well, well. Who’s your friend, Ginger?” The stallion turned his head to face Starswirl, who had a look of disgust on his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll take her off your hands for a while.”

Starswirl’s horn lit up with bright purple magic, and a beam shot straight at the pegasus. He didn’t even flinch. The stallion casually trotted closer to me once the beam was cut off. I looked at Starswirl; he had a panicked expression.

“H-how…?” I began, but couldn’t finish. When the pegasus took another step closer, I felt a surge of power flow through my body. Suddenly, I felt my knees go week. Green flames formed a bubble around the stranger, but he came out unscathed. Great, I thought to myself. I had just weakened myself for no reason.

Starswirl jumped between me and the pegasus. Bright purple lights swirled around him. I heard him chant something in a foreign language. A thin crystal film crashed around the stallion, and I had a feeling Starswirl was going to do something much worse than knock him out. I stood up and placed my hoof on his shoulder. The magic slowly died away, and the pegasus was hunched over, coughing and wheezing.

He looked up at the two of us. “Look, I just need the mare. It’s my job,” he said, his voice cracking. I gave him a look that said ‘Really?’. “It’s true! The dragon that used to live in that cave sent me.” He gestured to the cave we were currently staying in. Starswirl glared at the pegasus.

I did the same. “And you need me why?” I asked. “Last night I’m pretty sure you were drunk, and you just thought I was a vulnerable little filly.” The stallion shrugged, and rubbed his head.

My ears perked up at the sound of a slight chuckle in the breeze. An eerie, cynical voice began to speak. “I don’t need you. But I can’t deny myself and my son fresh meat.” A large, slender dragon emerged from the surrounding forest, her pale blue scales catching the morning sunlight. The tan pegasus melted away into a smaller, winged dragon.

I stood my ground, green sparks flying around my horn. Starswirl stood beside me, a book floating in front of him. “Now the baking ingredients make sense,” he whispered. Yes, I guess the ingredients were intended for us- er, me. I suddenly realized that the dragon had been expecting me in the cave, alone. They apparently hadn’t seen Starswirl with me; I was perfectly fine with that.

Starswirl’s POV
Well, the good thing was that I came off as a surprise. The dragons weren’t expecting two powerful unicorns. Clover shot me a smirk and winked. I quickly turned to face the two dragons. The magical aura inside me channeled into my horn, until blood red sparks began to emanate from it. In the back of my mind was a banishment spell I’d read about a few months back; it was to send somepony- or dragon- thousands of miles away. To tell the truth, I had no idea if the spell was safe. I think Clover started to cast a spell, but stopped in the middle of it.

The screeches of the dragons could be heard over the electricity of the spell. When the red smoke cleared, the dragons had disappeared. I sighed with relief and glanced at Clover. She had a look on her face- it was one I had seen many times: fear. I had never once cared if any of the unicorns I turned in to Celestia wore that look. But, somehow, it was different with Clover, and I knew why. She was the one pony I’d ever gotten close to.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as casual as possible. She shook her head, looked at me, then shook her head again. 
It seemed like she was looking for something, but when she couldn’t find it, she asked me a question.

“What did you just do?” Clover asked. Her voice was emotionless, though her eyes revealed a sense of betrayal. I had learned to read people’s… What do I even call it? I don’t know exactly how to put it, but back then I could sense when somepony was feeling a very strong emotion. I guess I must’ve picked it up from watching Queen Celestia do all of those mind wipes.

Anyways, I noticed that Clover had begun slowly backing away from me when I didn’t answer for a long time. “Clover, it’s not what you think. I just sent them away from here-“

“Don’t lie,” she said sternly. Her eyes were filling with a few cold tears. “Please, don’t lie to me.” My ears lowered, and I bent down to the ground with shame. After a long time, I thought she’d left. But I was proven wrong once I felt her put a hoof on my back. “It’s okay, whatever you did. What’s not okay is lying to the only person you claim to trust in this world.” I stared up at her. A hint of forgiveness was in her eyes, but I knew that it wasn’t enough.

“It was…” I sighed, “a banishment spell. I don’t even know if it was safe. It was just something I read in a book someplace.” Clover nodded hesitantly, and didn’t speak to me the whole way to Ponyville.

As we entered the small town, I noticed it was busier than it had been yesterday. I lead the way to a tree-like building off to the right of one of the walkways. The sign in front told me it was a library- the perfect place to begin studying this world. My hoof reached out, but Clover stopped me.

She cleared her throat. “Um, in case you have forgotten, we haven’t eaten today. And we should probably find some way to earn money,” she said. I sighed, and as if on cue, my stomach growled. Clover was right; we needed our energy. We still had plenty of time to study. We weren’t planning on leaving any time soon.