The Story of Star Swirl The Bearded

Chapters

Chapter 1 - The Waterfall
Chapter 2 - Sidus
Chapter 3 - The Meeting
Chapter 4 - Harbour
Chapter 5 - The Blizzard
Author's note
Information - Start here new readers

Chapter 1 - The Waterfall

The cold night rain drummed on the grand phoenix as he sat in the glade by himself. The rippling sound of the waterfall soothed him, even though he knew that the waterfall in front of him made no real sound, not in this place. What truly soothed him was a memory, a memory from a forgotten time, forcing itself into his waking consciousness. The soft glow emitting from the phoenix’s red and golden feathers illuminated the glade, bathing it in a light resembling that of a sunset.

The phoenix was asleep, and yet he was awake. It was hard to tell in a place like this, a place where the astral powers were more in control than anything else. He knew that the tribe he watched over was about to get a new foal, and he could not help but feel pride for that. This last decade had welcomed two new additions to his tribe, a pegasus and a unicorn, and now a third was about to be born.

A powerful surge stirred the phoenix truly awake, drawing him back from his astral slumber. It was as if a bright star had emerged from the heavens and landed in front of him. The sudden burst of such pure power overwhelmed him for a second before it disappearing as quickly as it had come. Driven by the curiosity that had been awoken by the surge, he took a look at what had happened in the small settlement he watched over from the astral plane where he lingered.

An earth pony held a baby unicorn in his hooves, looking up at the single star that lit up the night sky above him. The phoenix felt his heart swell with joy; this was the third unicorn in the village. But the joy was soon overwhelmed by unease. Could this new unicorn have been the source of the power surge he had felt mere moments ago? And how would the rest of the astral react to this?

Since The Sundering, every birth in the Phoenix Tribe had been followed by a grand celebration, and this unicorn’s birth was no exception. For days the tribe celebrated their new addition, celebrating with song and dance, storytelling and feasts. The foal slept through most of the celebration, but the few times he did awaken, his eyes were focused on the stars which twinkled above him, and if he awoke during the day, he would look at the celebration that surrounded him without a sound.

During the last day of celebration, the foal was carried to the alter by his parents to finish the celebration. The name-giving ritual, a ritual with its origin from the time before The Sundering, and still used even today, would be performed, concluding the celebration that surrounded the birthing. They gently smeared the foal with ash and sat him down on the decorated altar. The foal faced the tribe, and everypony looked at him as the old unicorn, the advisor who was the voice of the astral, took his place behind the foal. He spoke up, the wind carrying his voice so it could be heard by all of the assembled ponies.
“In the name of the ash, the fire, and the phoenix, I welcome you to our tribe. We welcome you in a time of peace, and pray that you carry such peace in your heart, mind, and soul. The seasons will change, the world around us will change, but we pray that you will be one with us. May Discord, Luna and Celestia watch over you, now and for the rest of your life.”

The phoenix looked down at the newborn foal, and he could feel the power that emerged from the heart of the foal.
“Welcome to us, Star,” he whispered at the same time as the unicorn spoke the very same words, letting the words slip out into the night around him.

~*^*~

The morning sun shone down on me, its radiating glow lighting up my world through my closed eyelids, warming my body. The gentle wind stroked my mane and coat, bringing the scent of roses to my nostrils. A small trickle of sweat dripped down my forehead as I focused on containing the magic that flowed through me, allowing me to shape the world to my will.

At least, it should have in theory. As for now, it would not even allow me to keep the stone which my focus lingered on in the air for long, much less shape the world around me. The energy that raced through my veins rapidly drained, as if I were a water pouch with a big hole punched in the side. I could feel my body tremble as I tried to fight against the strain that followed my attempt to press my magic beyond its limit. In the end I had to give up, releasing the magic around the rock, allowing it to flow back into the tiny light of my mind that was the source of my magic. I collapsed on the grass; exhausted after my feeble attempt at what could loosely be called ‘magic’.

“Remain focused, Star, and remember what I told you,” Crystal Fire, my grandfather, said from behind me. “Let the magic flow through you. It comes from your heart, but the mind must divide it, control it.”

I did not answer; I just nudged the stone in front of me with my hoof. All I wanted was for it to disappear, to remove the object that represented my failure. But the boring shade of gray it bore made it impossible for it to blend into the green grass which I lay on. The chilly dew from the grass had stuck to my coat and was slowly evaporating from the warmth of the sun that shone down from a cloudless sky.

“What’s the matter, Star?” the elder unicorn asked, his voice calm and steady as he sat down beside me. “You always have a thousand and one questions that you seek an answer for, but today you have been quiet. What is on your mind, little one?”

I did not answer him directly; instead I nudged the stone again, setting it in motion down the slope of the hill where I laid. I followed it with my eyes, trying to gain control over my thoughts. What was on my mind? He sat beside me, allowed me the time to gather my thoughts. I could feel his fire red eyes on me, but he waited patiently for me to answer. I didn’t know how to answer his question, nor did I know where to start.

I was a unicorn; the use of magic was in my nature, and still I could not do anything at all. I was not powerful enough. I could feel the magic as it pulsated through my body, pulsated together with my blood, pumped around by my heart. But as soon as I tried to use it, my strength quickly faded, leaving me empty, as if I had had an open wound.

“It’s...” I paused. “It’s hard to explain.” I held my head down, unable to meet his eyes. I could hear him sigh behind me.

“Does it have anything to do with your lack of magical prowess?” my grandfather asked, keeping his voice low.

“I have read and read; I know the processes by heart. I should be able to do this in my sleep. And still…” I hesitated, what was it I wanted to say?

“And still you cannot draw the power from within you to control the world around you after your will.” Crystal Fire finished my sentence.

“Yes,” I sighed. “I can’t do anything with my magic. I can’t even keep a stupid rock floating in the air for more than a few seconds before I have to release the magic or collapse from the overexertion. But as soon as I release the magic, all of my energy runs back inside me at once.”

“Look at me, Star,” Crystal Fire said as he brought a hoof under my chin and raised my head. My gaze was met by his fiery eyes, eyes full of concern. “You have an inner strength deep down inside of you, but something is blocking it. Your subconscious protects you from the raging torrent that might destroy you from within if it were to break free. We will have to work around the blockade and make sure that you learn to control just how much power is set free while shaping said power after your will,” he said, smiling warmly at me.

“Now, child, this is not something I can help you with myself. While it might be possible to remove the blockade through magical measures this would, most likely, damage you more. Additionally, It would release magic that you aren’t ready to control, most likely burning you out completely in the process. It would maybe even put the settlement in danger.

“No, we will have to go about this another way, a more easily controlled one. I will contact Sea Walker, advisor of the Sea Serpent tribe. He had a problem like yours when he was a foal; he ought to know what needs to be done to go around it, or tear it down safely, should that would be necessary. You are still only a foal. Even if you should be stronger in your magic, it’s nothing unusual for you not to be able to use your magic to your full potential yet. .

“All unicorns have this issue at some part of their life. It comes often after a time of wild magic use, a way for your mind to protect your body from the raging torment that might envelop you. But I promise you that there are ways around this,” he said, nodding at his own words. “Now, go off and play, I need to send the message and speak to your mother.”

I smiled at him, the thoughts about my incapability with magic already fading away with the promise of a free day in the sun. I hugged him tightly, whispering “Thanks, Grandpa,” before I turned away and laughed in glee, taking off down the slope. The sun shone down on me as I ran, evaporating the last trace of dew from my coat with its warm light. Behind me I could hear my grandfather laugh softly, sharing some of my joy.

~*^*~

The settlement I was raised in did not have any name. While we referred to it as “Our Village,” the other tribes called it “The Village of the Phoenix”. The village was lazy this late summer evening. Its inhabitants walked around, stopping to talk with each other every now and then. They were the blood that pulsated in this village, and it was very much alive. I could feel how the wind stroked my mane gently, bringing with it the scent of flowers and food, and the sound of the inhabitants striking up conversation. I kept up my gallop as I entered the village, gleefully greeting everypony I met.

It was a friendly village; all of the inhabitants knew each other. I was more than once greeted by a small laugh and a quick comment on my energy this morning, something I only returned with a smile as I kept galloping.

“Why are you in such a hurry, Star?” a mare, Heart Flower, called after me. “Are you running from your lessons again?” I stopped in my tracks, coming to an abrupt halt in front of the flower garden that Heart Flower was tending. She had not even looked up at me.

“Not this time,” I said, trying to catch my breath again. My coat was dampened some by the sweat that ran from my forehead. “I have the day off.”

She laughed softly at me. “Oh, is that so? Well then, I shall not keep you busy and interrupt your day off,” she said,looking up at me. A smile played on her muzzle as she spoke. “Autumn Leaf and Sunny Daze are at the training grounds. I’m sure they would enjoy your company.”

I pricked my ears at this information, feeling the joy inside of me growing even more at the thought that the only two other younglings, if they could now be called that, had a day off as well. “Thank you, Miss Flower.” I said, already galloping towards the training grounds.

The sun’s journey had only just begun as I galloped through the village, leaving hours for me to spend with the only two friends I had around my own age. I had my mind on other things than the road I galloped on, and it ended with me running head first into something hard. I felt a sting of pain in my head as I bounced from the pony I had run into, and landed in a pile in the middle of the road.

The sudden pain made my head throb and tears started to well in my eyes. I looked up and noticed a stallion’s brown coat. My eyes instantly started to wander towards his cutie mark. It was a gray boulder which lay on its side, a design I knew all too well. I quickly wiped away the half hidden tears from my eyes and looked up at the earth pony in front of me. “Good morning, Father.”

He looked down at me, clearly trying to keep the smile away from his face; but his eyes betrayed him as they shone with amusement. He brought his hoof forward and helped me up, still holding the smile away.

“You seem to be in a hurry, son,” he said with a voice deeper than most other stallions had. “Did your grandfather send you on some assignment or did he finally give up on you?” He could not keep the smile inside him anymore; it came out together with a loud laugh.

I punched him on his leg, but he did not seem to notice the light contact at all. He just kept laughing. Instead I sank back down on my haunches and looked up at him, a sly smile spreading over my muzzle. At least I might take the opportunity to get a little payback. I quickly changed my expression, trying to look as grumpy as I could. But I suspect that I did not pull it off very well.
“So he already told you about it, then?” I said, trying to look as sad as possible.

That made the laughter die from his lips. He looked down at me with eyes that were full of concern and a hint of amusement, it seemed that he had seen through my act.
“He did what?!” my father shouted. “Oh, when I find him he will not be able to sit for a decade!”

I could not keep away the laughter. I did not even try, but instead allowed it to escape me as I started to roll on the ground, hooves tight against my chest and barely able to breathe.

“Gotcha,” I exclaimed between two laugh attacks.

He stood there and looked down on me, smiling fondly, before he burst out laughing as well, joining me in my fit of giggles. Some of the other ponies looked at the scene we created in the middle of the road, smiling warmly as us before returning to what they were doing.

We laughed for quite some time, the sun smiling down at us, seemingly sharing our joy. In the end I started to pull myself together, a couple of tears still in my eyes from laughing so much. I felt hooves around me as my father embraced me in a tight hug; a hug which I quickly returned. He chuckled lightly as he let me go.

“Now then, where are you going? What errand are you running for your grandfather this time?” he asked, still with a smile on his muzzle. “I’m sure there are a thousand and one things he would have you to do in order to keep you from breaking something again.”

“Hey, that was a one-time-only thing! It wasn’t my fault that that vase stood under my rock!” I said, embarrassment burning bright in my cheeks as I recalled the event. It had been in the beginning of my learning, and my grandfather had thought that I knew a simple levitation spell, and ordered me to levitate a rock over to myself. Unfortunate for his vase I did not know that spell, and instead the rock had, once it actually moved at all, flown away from me, straight into a vase that stood at the other end of the room. That was one of the reasons that I trained outdoors nowadays. “Besides, I was granted a day off.”

“Oh,” my father said, surprise in his voice. “That’s not like your grandfather. What was so important that he gave you a day off? Did Flame Raiser need his help again?”

“No, no nothing like that. He said that I had a blockade or something like that which blocked my use of magic. He should contact Sea... something.” I brought up my hoof and stroked my chin as I tried to remember the last part of the name, mirroring the way that Crystal Fire always positioned himself when he was deep in thought.

My father looked surprised at me, his eyes widening somewhat. “Is he contacting Sea Walker, advisor of the Sea Serpent tribe? Those two have not spoken to each other since the last tournament. I hope they can fix that, the situation between us Phoenix and the Sea Serpents has been...”

I ignored what my father was about to say; happy that he knew the name of the one I was trying to remember. My muzzle lit up as he said the name. “Yes, Sea Walker was his name,” I said, interrupting him. “Crystal Fire said that he had trouble as well when he was young, and might know a way around it.”

My father looked at me and smiled, bringing forth a subject I had already forgotten about.
“Why were you in such a hurry anyway? It’s not like you to only run straight forward and knock into ponies in the middle of the street.”

I quickly rose to my hooves as I remembered where I had been heading, once again taking off in a gallop towards the training ground. I stopped in my tracks after only a few steps though, and turned around and looked at my father. He still sat there, a sheepish expression on his face.
“Sunny Daze and Autumn Leaf have a day off as well. Heart Flower said they would be at the training ground. Got to go! See you at dinner, love you!” I shouted at him before I took off again.

He just sat there and looked after me, and I could feel his smile on my back as I hurried away towards my friends.

~*^*~

The training grounds lay in a valley just outside the small village. The small stream from the mountain ran out from the forest and gathered up into a small pond, which lay at the end of the hard packed dirt that served as the training grounds. It was a place for the ponies in the settlement to train in several different things. There was an area for archery, and one for hoof wrestling; there was even an area for martial arts and another for weaponry. There were several other areas, but I had no clue as to their purposes.

This area was practically never used. I had asked my father why we had kept it here, and he had told me that, a long time ago, still close enough in time to be fresh in the memory of the older ponies of the village, there had been a time when the tribes did not agree on a lot of topics. Ponies had been mean to each other and there had been a need to defend each other and fight against those with other viewpoints in the argument. But that was a different time. Now the tribes, at least most of them, agreed with one another again. The training area was now there for preparation before the tournaments, and thus only used around the times for that event. Some ponies were here other times as well, to keep in shape or to fight off a duel about a minor occurrence, although the latter rarely ever happened.

Today, the training ground was empty except for the two other younglings in the settlement. I could see how Sunny Daze soared in the sky. His violet red mane fluttered behind him as he flapped furiously with his wings, trying to gain speed as he raced straight upwards. His eyes were focused on a spot high up, and he looked nearly straight upward. Then, as he reached a point where I had to squint my eyes as not to be blinded by the sun, he turned around. His smile beamed like the sun that shone down on me from behind him as he dove straight down again, aiming for the small pond of water. I heard a gasp and looked away from Daze.

Autumn Leaf stood alone between me and the pond, looking up at the sky, eyes locked on Daze. The wind played lightly with her forest green mane, gently lifting it and descending it. Her coat had the light brown color of an almond tree, and the cutie mark on her flank was that of an orange leaf. She raised a hoof to her mouth as she kept her eyes on the pegasus above us.

I followed her gaze upwards, and saw Daze as he descended from the sky. He raced quickly towards the pond, his wings now pressed tightly against his body. He closed in to the body of water, his eyes drifting towards the small audience that consisted of myself and Leaf. A confident smile spread over his muzzle as he brought out his wings from his body, trying to stop his fall.

I could practically hear how his wings strained under the pressure of trying to stop the diving pegasus. He brought down his wings a couple of times more, resulting in him losing even more speed, but far from enough. I could see his smile quickly fade as he realized that he could not stop quickly enough, and he fell faster and faster towards the body of water. The air stunt ended in a splash as he landed in the water, small drops of water splashed all the way to me. Ripples spread from where he had landed, filling the crystal clear pond with lines that interrupted the reflective surface.

I began to run towards the pond, the sound of Leaf calling out the name of our friend made me turn around for a split second. She had started to run towards the pond as well, her eyes on the place where Daze had broken the surface. I quickly turned my own eyes back to the pond, and I had nearly reached it, Leaf not more than a step behind me, when its surface broke once again and Daze ascended in a cascade of droplets. The small drops landed around me and Leaf, the sun shone down, reflecting in the drops on Daze’s coat, making its purple color shimmer brighter than usually.

He laughed as he flapped his wings two times, quickly reducing the distance between him and us. He landed between us, and before either I or Leaf could react, we were embraced in a tight hug. His soaked coat and wings were cold and made my coat as wet as if I had jumped into the pond myself. I could hear how Leaf struggled on the other side. “Let me go you ruffian!” she yelled, the laughter that followed betraying her serious tone. “You have no right to hug me while you are soaking wet!”

He released the embrace and took a step back before he shook himself, shaking the water out of his coat and onto me and Leaf; laughing as he did so. He smiled brotherly at me. “Hey kiddo, what did you think about my perfect landing in that pond? Am I awesome or what?” he asked, his voice full of pride.

A pride I had to burst.

“You crashed into the pond, Daze.” I said, a smile spreading across my muzzle. “Did you plan to do that?”

“Okay, what did you think about my crash then?” he asked, ruffling my mane with a hoof.

“It was your best crash so far. I really liked the splash,” I said, trying to wiggle out from the ruffling. He released me and allowed his focus to move over to Leaf. I could see how she hastily hid the smile that had played on her lips as she looked at us, meeting Daze’s look with a stern gaze.

“I take that as a no, dear, I did not like it, then?” he asked jokingly, smiling at her.

In response, Leaf poked him hard in the chest with her outstretched hoof, causing him to grunt.
“Never. Do. That. Again.” she said, each word punctuated by another poke.

“Do what? Crashing, or soaking you with water afterwards?” Daze asked, a smile still on his lips.

Leaf sighed, putting down her hoof and allowed the smile to return to her muzzle.
“Both of them; you had me worried sick when you crashed into the water. Please promise me you won’t do that again. Please?” she pleaded; her big sky blue eyes brimming with false tears, the smile on her muzzle betraying her act.

“I didn’t crash. At least not that much! I was aiming for the pond to make it look spectacular!” he said, punctuating the last word with a smile. “And anyway,” he began, nuzzling Leaf. “You’re so cute when you’re soaked.”

She sighed again before she returned the nuzzling.

“You’re impossible, you know that right?”

“That I do,” he answered cheerfully before he turned back towards me. “Well kiddo, I didn’t expect to see you here today. Did you run from your lesson again? Or did that old goat finally give up on you?” he teased me, the smile still on his muzzle. It seemed to widen at his teasing tone.

“Why does everypony think that he gave up on me?” I asked, sitting down on my haunches with a grumpy look on my face, my eyes on the older pegasus in front of me.

“Oh, sorry kiddo, I’m just teasing you,” he said, once again ruffling my mane. “Now why are you here? Don’t you have training the whole day? Like all days before that and all days that are to come?”

“My grandpa gave me the day off, and Heart Flower told me I could find you here.”

“I must say, it’s not like Crystal Fire to give you a day off. Is he sick?” Autumn Leaf asked with concern in her voice as she made her way under one of Daze’s wings, leaning against him. “He usually only lets you go off if you disappoint him during something important, and he expects you to study up on the thing you screwed up. Please tell me that’s not the reason why.”

“Nah, he’s fine, and I didn’t screw up. He’s getting in contact with a unicorn from the Sea Serpent tribe who should be able to help me with things he couldn’t figure out,” I said, my smile returning as well. “So, what do you guys have planned for today? Can I come with you? Can I, can I?!”

Daze laughed softly at me, his eyes wandering towards the young mare under his wing.
“We don’t actually have any plans for the day, we were just going to enjoy it and each other’s company. But we’d be more than happy to do something that you want kiddo, since you have a day off for once. After all, it’s not often that you get the chance to spend an entire day with us.”

Autumn Leaf nodded in agreement.

“Can we go to the waterfall?” I asked curiously. I knew that it was somewhere in the forest, my father had spoken about it a couple of times and Crystal Fire had told me that it was the basis of life for this village, providing us with the water that we drink, and the plants we eat. I had been curious about the waterfall, but I never had the opportunity to visit there before.

“I don’t know, kiddo; it would take some time to get there,” Daze said, looking back at the earth pony under his wing.

“I haven’t been there for years,” Leaf whispered from Daze’s embrace. “And I remember it as a beautiful place. I would love to go there.”

“That settles it then,” Daze said with a smile. “We’re going to the waterfall. But we’re not staying there for long, the others might start to worry.”

A cheer escaped me as I quickly got up onto my hooves again. I trotted towards the forest, following the small stream that emerged from it. I could hear Leaf and Daze laugh together as they trotted behind me, leaving the now calm pond behind us.

~*^*~

Birds sang in the trees as we slowly walked alongside the lazily moving stream. The branches of the trees twined around each other above us, and the sun found its way through the ceiling of leaves and emanated an emerald green light around us. We followed a small track that winded along the stream. The sound of the slowly moving water was the only thing that could be heard together with the birds’ song; the sounds enveloping around each other and created a song of harmony.

We walked in silence, enjoying the peace that the forest around us created. Our hooves did not stir up any dust or leaves from the ground, nor were any hoof steps heard. I found it hard not to look at everything around me; I had never been this deep into the forest before.

I stopped in my tracks and examined a big boulder standing a bit away from the road, green moss almost completely covering it. Leaf and Daze trotted past me, leaning close to each other, but my focus was on the boulder. There was something beneath the moss, and I was eager to see what it was.

I slowly made my way towards it; the vegetation’s scent filling my nostrils as I approached. I heard Daze telling Leaf something, but I did not pay it any more mind. The boulder looked even bigger up close, easily three times as high as me. I moved the moss at the base of the boulder as far up as I could. Letters, previously hidden beneath the dark green growths, became visible. I read the ones I could see:
“Remember the flames of protection.
The phoenix is one of affection.”

“What did you find, kiddo?” Daze asked from behind me.

“I don’t know. Does this sentence mean anything to you?” I asked, unable to keep the curiosity from my voice.

He read it, slowly pronouncing every syllable of the sentence.
“Nope, sorry, I’ve never heard of anything like this. Perhaps you should ask your grandfather about it? I’m sure he knows,” he said. “Anyway, we should keep going. If you haven’t changed your mind and don’t want to see the waterfall anymore, that is?”

I looked over the letters again, trying to memorize the sentence.
“Yeah, we should,” I agreed with a last glance at the stone. “No, I still want to see it. I can ask him when I get home.”

We walked together to the small path again, where Leaf was waiting for us. The earth pony had a smile on her muzzle as she looked up at two birds who sang beside each other in one of the trees. As we approached her, she turned around and shared the smile with us. It was a warm, tender smile which both I and Daze returned. We stood together and listened to the birds’ song until they thought it was time to leave us. As they left so did we, and we proceeded to walk together towards the waterfall, whispering lightly to each other as to not interrupt the harmony of the forest.

~*^*~

The sound of the waterfall reached my ears first, the low rumble of it slowly rising as we approached. The birds in the trees around us stopped their singing; the waterfall had taken its place in the creation of harmony together with the sound of the stream and the gentle rustling of the leaves in the trees.

I quickened my pace, the wish to see the waterfall pulled me towards the source of the sound, pulled me towards the waterfall. The path emerged into a round glade, trees surrounding it on all sides. The trees here stood higher than any other tree I had ever seen. Their crowns were greater than any other trees; covering the whole glade underneath them. The thick foliage above us was only allowing through the faintest of the sun’s light, bathing the whole area in a deep emerald green color.

The waterfall flowed down from the crescent-shaped cliff formation that stood in a circle around the small pond at the far end of the glade, its water frothing around the rocks as the waterfall hit them with full power. The gray cliffs covered most of that part of the glade around us, making it impossible to travel further into the forest without climbing over them. The rumble of the waterfall was higher here, but still low enough for us to speak with each other without any problem. The water continued in the stream that divided the glade in two, flowing faster here than it did around the training grounds.

Flowers of every color and combination grew in clusters in the green grass, their fragrances mixing together in one single aroma that enveloped the entire glade. It was impossible to pick out a single scent in that aroma, they existed in a perfect harmony.

I could not do anything else other than watch in awe at the scene in front of me. My eyes wandered from one part to the next. I could hear how Leaf murmured to Daze how beautiful it was, and I had to agree with her. I slowed down my pace to a slow trot. The harmony of the place washed over me, filling me with a calm serenity that had not been there before. I made my way through the calm place towards the stream, careful so to not trample any of the many flowers here. I had made it halfway when I saw a particularly beautiful flower, a sight that made me stop in my tracks to admire it. Its beauty caught my attention more than anything else in the glade had done.

The flower was in the form of a drop, gold and red colors embracing each other. The stem was a soft blue color, its single leaf the same. It stood in the middle of a flower cluster, the rest of the flowers giving it more space than any other flower had. I lay down beside it, ignoring the flowers I most likely had crushed beneath me. My eyes were on the golden flower in front of me. Before my eyes the capsule, which I had mistaken for the flower itself, opened up; the gold and red petals unfurled. The emerald green sun light shone down and was reflected on the flower, creating an illusion of small fires in each petal. And then the scent of the flower reached my nostrils, overwhelming every other scent in the glade.

The scent was fresh. All at once, I could smell the aroma of newly fallen snow in a winter landscape, a crystal clear pond on a summer day, and a light rain in the spring. That single flower contained all the fragrances I knew about, and the flowers around it stood with it in perfect harmony. Each scent had its own place; each scent needed the others to create the harmony. I closed my eyelids, allowed my olfactory sense to take over. I could feel my body grow tired, I lowered my head down to my front legs, my eyelids still closed, and allowed sleep to embrace me. The last thing I could sense was the fragrance of the flower.

~*^*~

“Arise Star,” a voice called out from the darkness around me. “Open your eyes and see the truth.”

I did not even think before I opened my eyelids: the voice had a hint of command in it, enough for me to listen. I noticed that I still was in the glade, but the emerald light around me was gone, replaced with a golden and red light. I could see the waterfall in front of me, but the rumble from it was gone, although it still poured down water from it. The flower in front of me had once again closed its petals; the drop shaped capsule burned like a fire in the golden light. A wind blew lazily in the glade, playing around with my mane and with the flowers around me. Even if I should be able to smell the harmonic scents from before, the mixture of fragrances was not there.

“Why are you here, Star?” the voice asked from a point behind me. It was a voice that sounded like running water. Calm, but still wild, clear and powerful. “What do you want from Eternal Fire?”

“I don’t…” I turned towards the sound and lost my words midsentence. A giant bird loomed over me, its feathers the color of golden fires, its chest the color of red rubies. It pulsated with light; radiated the glow of the sun, each feather glowing by itself. I took a step back from it, tears formed in my eyes and I had to shut them slightly to avoid the stinging that I felt in them when I looked straight at the bird. It felt as if I had looked directly at the sun.

The bird opened up his wings, each being at least eight times as long as I was from head to tail, and held them out from his body. Runes covered the inside of the wings, glowing in their own soft blue color. I could make out some of them, runes of freedom and rebirth, fire and ashes, power and control. Others were completely lost for me; runes I had never seen before. The golden glow was dampened some; the inside of the wings did not seem to radiate it in the same way as the outside of them.

“Why are you here, Star? I didn’t expect you for years yet,” the phoenix asked me. Its beak did not move at all, but still it looked down at me with the two golden orbs it had as eyes.

“I don’t know, what is this place? And what do you mean with expecting me? Who are you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

The phoenix must have noticed that I was afraid of the situation. His voice became calmer, as soothing as the sound of rippling water.
“You have nothing to fear, Star. I’m Eternal Fire, and this is the astral plane of the fire, my domain. This is the place where your final ritual into adulthood will be committed, where I myself accept you into the tribe of the phoenix. What you see around you reflects the living world; the astral plane doesn’t project the surrounding area but the feeling of it.”

I was stunned by his words. “Accept me into the tribe? But my father told me that I was accepted into the tribe during the name giving ceremony! Do Sunny Daze and Autumn Leaf know about this? What happens if you do not accept me?” I dove to the ground, protecting my head with my fore hooves as I looked up at the great phoenix, my eyes big as I pledged to him. “You will accept me, won’t you?”

He looked surprisingly at me before he started to laugh, a laugh that sounded like the roaring of a fire in the silent winter. “None have spoken to you about it because it is forbidden to mention this place in the outside world. The ones arriving here must do so on their own and when it’s their time. But you are here too early; you are not meant to take this test yet. Your friend Sunny Daze has done the test, Autumn Leaf has not. I can feel the fear in Sunny’s heart that the mare will not pass the test, but I do not think he needs to worry, the test is different for each pony; designed to drive out the power from inside of each individual. If you don’t pass the test, if I don’t accept you under my wings, then you will be cast out from the tribe. You will be left to wander the world, given a chance to find yourself before you find this place again and can prove your worth. But I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you. Your inner power burns bright, your will is strong.”

“When is it Autumn’s turn to do the test? And what does the test consist of?” I asked before I could stop myself. My mind craved for answers.

“Autumn will be tested when her time comes, not before and not after. The content of each denizen’s test is different, never are two ponies’ test alike. Some might be tested by their endurance, some by their speed. A selected few are tested by their sheer will, others by the power of their hearts.”

“So I came here just to be tested, and now you will not let me?” I asked. “Why? Am I to weak? Do you not think I’m worthy to be tested?”

The phoenix chuckled again. “You did not arrive here to be tested; you have not yet met the criteria of the test. You have not achieved the signs of your inner strength. The test would not be in your field, and it would instead become a test that would give you a field, thus destroying what you are meant to be.

And you are not weak, far from it. Others of my kind fear you. In turn, they fear me as I’m the one to lead your test and thus create your place in the tribe. They have insisted that you should be dealt with, and all of them are not happy about the arrangements that have been made. You have a power inside of you that one day will outshine mine, maybe even outshine the stars. But this is not the time for you to be tested; your right of passage will come one day,” he said and looked down on me, amusement shining in his golden eyes. “Never think of yourself as weak, Star. That is as far from the truth as you can get.”

“Then why am I here? And I cannot be that powerful, my blockade is not letting me touch the powers you say I have.”

“I do not know why you are here. Even if I’m the one that is in control in this place so is this place ruled by magic. I can bend it after my will, but so can other powers. You will have to search in your heart for why you are here, that’s how you will understand. And that blockade will vanish in time, as they always do. Find your inner power, and work hard and it will disappear like dew on a summer morning.”

I looked away from the phoenix, and the flower caught my attention once again.
“What is that? I have never seen a flower like that before.”

The Eternal Fire chuckled behind me.
“That is a flower called Phoenix Breath, and is in fact a flower that spring out from the egg of a phoenix. When the time for the phoenix draws near, when it’s time for the first life cycle to begin, the capsule opens up. The petals show their beauty to the world that surrounds it. It contains a lot of magic, magic that guides the warmth from the sun that hits the petals to the egg in the ground, warming up the phoenix so that it might burst into flames and crack open the egg in which it have slept in since the beginning of time.”

“But… it opened in front of me, and now it is closed. How is that?” I asked and turned around to the flower.

“A phoenix choose when it is its time, nothing can change that.”

“When did you choose?”

“I didn’t. You see, I’m not a phoenix in the true meaning. I’m an astral spirit, the prayers and sacrifices of your tribe are fueling my powers, but it also change me to what they pray towards. I was once shaped like you, but change with the time into the shape I now live in. I have not gotten my knowledge by living through everything, but by observing.”

“But how do yo…” I started as I looked back. The phoenix was not behind me anymore.

I could feel how the air grew colder, could see how snow started to fall around me. A chilly wind whined through the gale, violently tossing my mane around, the snow it brought with it felt like ice shards piercing my skin. I could see how the flowers around me died, their scent replaced by the cold scent of winter. The waterfall froze solid in a second, the water staying in place, the ice overlaying it reflected the small amount of sunshine that made its way through the clouds. The stream froze as well, the ice soon coated by snow. The foliage above me had disappeared, allowing the nearly clouded sky above me to be seen. One thing remained through all of this, and that was the Phoenix Breath that still stood tall in front of me.

I was stunned, the world changed so fast, it did not take half a minute before it was all coated by the winter. Something else caught my attention, a small cottage at the other side of the glade, close to the base of the once lively waterfall. Thick smoke erupted from a chimney on the roof; a warm light emerged from a window close to the wooden door. I was practically chilled to the bone, so I galloped towards the cottage, hoping that somepony was home and that it was warm. I also wanted answers, and the best place to get them appeared to be in that cottage.

I rapped multiple times on the door and was a rewarded by the voice of a stallion who called out for me to take it easy and not break down the door. The door opened and in front of me stood a full grown unicorn, his horn one of the longest I had seen. He had an old hat on his head, with bells around the brim of it. A white beard was placed on the end of his muzzle, his grey coat and silver mane nearly hidden behind a blue cape. A pair of golden eyes looked out in the night, looking for the disturbance. He even looked down, but he did not even seem to notice me. I could feel the warmth from the cottage, but when I tried to run in I was blocked by something, bouncing away from the doorway, and ended up on my haunches, looking in surprise at the door.

The old stallion started to close the door, but stopped dead when it was only half closed. He squinted some with his eyes, before he quickly rushed out, panic in his eyes. He hurriedly made his way towards a small lump in the snow, not much bigger than I was. A silver shine, like the light the stars emit a clear winter night, enveloped his horn and the small lump. I watched in astonishment as the lump floated upwards in the air, the snow starting to fall away from it and revealing a nearly snow white unicorn mare underneath it. The stallion gently lifted her up with his magic and magically floated her to the cottage. He looked around himself once more before he closed the door besides him.

I still stood in the snow, but strangely did I not feel cold anymore. I did, however, feel sleepy, and the snow felt soft under my hooves. I closed my eyelids and lay down, allowing the embrace of sleep to take me over.

~*^*~

I was awoken by the sound of hoofsteps. I laid on something warm, my body slowly swaying with whatever I lay on. I could hear soft murmurs around me, and I could make out Leaf’s and Daze’s voices as they talked to each other, too low for me to hear properly what they talked about. I slowly opened my eyelids, and saw that I was still in the forest, but walking through it. I laid on Daze’s back as he walked beside Leaf, their muzzles close together as they whispered to each other. Leaf had a single flower in her mane, right above her right ear, and they both smiled together while they walked side by side, Leaf under one of Daze’s wings.

“So you are finally awake, kiddo.” Daze spoke up. “Thought you should sleep the entire walk home; you scared us when you fell asleep back there and we couldn’t wake you up.”

“What happened?” I asked, my jaws wide open in a yawn.

“You trotted first, and we sat down and enjoyed each other’s company a little bit from you. After a while we notice that you were way quieter than you usually are and we decided that we should check on you. We found you asleep in the middle of a flower cluster and you did not respond when we tried to wake you up. We picked you up and here we are, almost back home.”

I realized that the sun had started to set; the dim light in the forest threw long shadows around us. The birds still sang around us, their song creating a soothing melody together with the rippling stream besides us. I looked up at the sky above us, the setting sun colored the clouds crimson red.

“Hey kiddo.” Daze said. “What happened with you back there? Why didn’t you wake up?”

“I…” I stopped myself, remembering the phoenix words. “I don’t know.” I did not like to lie towards my friends, but I was not sure if the deity's rule affected me, and I did not want to take any chances. “I can only remember that I dreamed about snow, about the winter that closed in around me. And then I awoke here.”

“Well, I hope you enjoyed your day off anyway, even if you slept through most of it,” Leaf said.

“I did, Leaf. Thank you for bringing me to the waterfall. It really was as beautiful as you said.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence, enjoying each other’s company and the harmonic forest around us.

~*^*~

“Where have you been?” the usually calm voice of my mother was now high and as far from calm as possible. “Do you have any idea what time it is? Do you have any idea how worried I have been?”

I sighed; I knew very well what time it was. I had arrived together with Leaf and Daze at the village when the sun had set and the moon had gone up, they had both walked me home before they had walked away together under the moonlight. And as soon as I had entered our small home, it had started. Now I sat in the hallway and was lectured by my mother for coming home late. The moon shone through a small window at the end of the room, and not a sound was heard from the village outside.

“Yes mom, the time is way over my bed time, and I guess you were worried sick for me,” I said, trying to keep my voice as calm as I could. I was not very good at it; I was terrified that I had made my mom feel like this.

“Don’t you take that tone with me, son. Why did you not come and tell me where you went? No, you just walked into the forest and didn’t return until the moon was high in the sky. Your grandfather came by earlier, told me that you had a free day off. He’s probably as worried as I am that you went in there without a word to anypony. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry mom; I shouldn’t have gone away without talking to you first.” I said with a lump in my throat. I had never meant to scare her like that, I had not even thought about it at the time.

Her features softened, and she sat down on her haunches with her forelegs open for a hug. I slowly moved forward, curling up in her hooves. She embraced me in a hug, softly whispering to me as she stroke my mane.
“Please don’t do that again. I love you and don’t want you to disappear like that.”

“I won’t, mommy,” I said, returning the hug. The moment was destroyed by the loud rumbling of my stomach.

My mother released the grip, smiling down at me. “You are hungry. Come, Star, let us get you something to eat.”

I happily followed her as she trotted towards the kitchen area. Our kitchen was small; a table took up most of the room. A chimney was our only source of heat; old ashes lay inside it from the morning fire which had long since burnt out. A stack of firewood lay besides it, filling the room with the smell of dry wood. My mother trotted to a small counter and brought forth some bread, quickly preparing three sandwiches.

We sat down at the table and she smiled at me while I ate two of them, lazily eating one herself. My father was out working, he had the night shift as always and had been home earlier, surprised that I had not been there waiting for him. We ate in silence and it did not take long before I had eaten up the sandwiches.
“Time for bed, Star.”

“But mom…”

“No buts, son. The moon is high and your grandfather expects you to be awake at the lesson tomorrow. March to bed, young colt,” she said, smiling at me.

“Yes mommy,” I said. She was right, I had only had the day off, not the week.

I trotted out of the kitchen and into my room, jumping onto the bed. My room was small, the only things in it were the bed and a writing desk under the window. Parchments rolls were stacked high at the desk, some of them had rolled down from the pile and now spread out over it as well. I closed my eyes, despite having slept during the day, I was still tired. I suppressed a yawn as I called out to my mother in the kitchen.

“Yes, Star?”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you.”

“It’s okay, you’re home now. Sleep well, my star shine.”

I felt how the sleep embraced me, and slowly I gave away to it, allowing the wings of sleep to slowly fly me away to the field of dreams.

~*^*~

Grammar corrections by Taranasaurus0.0 and Comicironic

Proofread by Some_Person and Bronymaster

Chapter 2 - Sidus

A single star twinkled above me, the silver drops on the black sky shone down, spread it light over me. I could feel the grass under my hooves, the scent of the forest around me was thick in my nostrils; brought to me by the chilly wind that howled around me. I looked around me, both curious and a little afraid, tried to figure out where I was. I stood at the top of a mountain, a green forest rippling out around me. A faint blue light illuminating the forest below me and the mountain I stood on; it was as light as the sun was in the day, but neither sun nor moon was to be seen in the sky. Only that single star was to be seen above.

I was not alone on the mountain, as I turned around did I see another pony, a mare that was not an earth pony, nor pegasus or unicorn. She had a white coat with silver stripes. Her mane shared the stripes; it hung down over her muzzle and covered half of it, hiding it behind a shadow. She had a staff over her crossed legs, the dark wood curved in ways that made me dizzy only by trying to follow the lines. The eye I could see was shut, moving behind a closed eyelid.

“Uhm… Hi?” I said cautiously, it was more a question than a greeting. “I’m sorry to bother, but where am I and who are you?”

“This place is one of your creating.
But I welcome you Star, I have been waiting.” the mare in front of me spoke, smiling softly in my direction.

“Can you take that a little more slowly? I did not understand.” I stated, sitting down on my haunches, still looking around me.

“This place is created by the magic inside of your heart.
And a warning I’m here to impart.”

“A warning? About what? And how did my magic create this?”

“The magic inside you is of a nature wild.
It plays tricks against you, your mind it has beguiled.
The power inside you can challenge the stars.
And the tribes it will cause deep scars.
Be careful when you learn to control your powers.
Help you will find within the heavenly towers.
Learn to control yourself by the sixth master of the after.
Seek me out thereafter.”

“What do you mean? What are you saying?” I asked.

“The truth behind my words is at this point of time hidden.
But you must not forget these words, the results that will come of that is forbidden.”

I felt how panic clawed against my mind as she started to fade away, her body slowly starting to blend in with the surroundings.
“Who are you?” I said, my voice mirroring the panic in my mind.

The mare looked at me for the first time, opening the eyelid I could see and revealing the light golden eye thereunder, looking straight at me. A smile spread at her muzzle as she answered.
“I have gone under many names during my time around.
Seeing Eye is the one you will have to found.”

And with that did she fade out completely, leaving me behind on the top of the mountain. When the sun light finally reached me was I still sitting on the exact same spot; looking up at the single star above me.

~*^*~

The sun’s light stirred me from my sleep, washed over me from the sky and warmed me as I allowed a yawn to escape my muzzle.

I heard my mother yell something from the kitchen, her voice heated with anger. I could not make out the words, but it sounded bad. Quickly did I rub the sleep out of my eyes, rose from my bed and crossed the room. I did not want to just run into the kitchen and interrupt them, but my curiosity had awakened, I wanted to know what they talked about. So instead did I nudge the door; opened it just enough for me to peak out and for the voices to be better heard.

“Have already decided that this is to be done.” I heard my grandfather say calmly. “And I think it is for the better. I can not help him, neither can you. In this way will he be able to learn to control his power and the tribes will be tied together.”

“I will not let you take my colt away from me!” my mother hissed at him. “I do not care if it is ordered by the astral leaders themselves, I do not care if all three of the gods stood in front of me and said those words, I will NOT let you take him away!”

“Listen to me Crystal Singer, listen to yourself! Was not the war hard enough? Did we not loose enough ponies as it were? We are weak! Our tribe is close to extinction, the only reason the tribe leaders have not ordered an attack against us to kill him is because they do not know how the other tribes will react, neither how the astral leaders will react. And you know very well that I may not speak about that!” his voice was still calm, but I could hear that it was soon to burst.

“So you are going to send them to them? Give them the chance to kill him in their own homes instead of here?” my mother seemed to be on the vague of tears.

I felt how something inside of me ached, I wanted to run there, comfort her, make her feel better. But I stayed at my eavesdropping spot, hopping to hear more.

“Yes. Yes I will. If they decide to kill him, which I find very unlikely since it would trigger the same reaction as if they killed him here, then it is only he instead of our entire tribe! I can not put a single foal, not even my grandson, in front of the entire tribe. He will travel with me to the market and the tribe assembly in a week; you are free to come with us if you must. And please daughter, do not make this harder than it already is. He will be fine and he will return to use in some years; and you can meet him every year at the market. I must start the preparations, the tribe must not show its weakness against the other tribes, this is our choice not theirs. I bid you farewell, for now. ”

I could hear hoofsteps coming closer, and I did not have the time to jump away from my eavesdropping place before my grandfather saw me. He looked at me; the fire in his eyes seemed to have burned out. He jerked his head towards the kitchen, and left the house, softly closing the door after him. I wanted to go after him, wanted to know what had happened, what they had talked about. I understood deep down, but I wanted to ignore that part of me.

As I took the first step towards the door, my mind set to catch up with my grandfather and talk to him, did I hear the sound of my mother sobbing from the kitchen. That changed my mind directly, even thought I could hear my father whisper to her. She needed me, and I could always get answers from my grandfather at a later point in time.

I turned around and entered the kitchen instead. A warm fire was burning in the chimney; the low sound of the logs crackling in the heat was barely heard over my mother’s sobbing. She sat on her haunches at the low wooden table that stood in the center of the room, her head at the base of my father’s neck. He held him in his hooves, stroked her mane as her shoulders shook in rate with her quiet sobbing. My father looked at me, tears ran down his face as well, but he did not make a sound. He just looked at me, his eyes pleading me.

I slowly walked over to them, squeezed me in between them. I clambered my hooves around my mother, hugging her as tightly as I could. She looked down at me, hot tears rolling from her and landing on my head, and gave me a smile before she returned the hug. She kept crying, my father whispered to us both that everything would be alright; trying to comfort us with those words.

~*^*~

I did not cry together with my parents, I had wanted but been unable to. I had felt numbness inside of me, had been unable to anything else but sit there; listening to the sound of my mother sobbing. No tears was wetting my eyes, they were as dry as sand in the sun. My mother ran her hoof through my mane, comforting me when I did not need it. But she needed it; I felt how her sobs started to fade away, how she was slowly regaining her composure.

It took some time for my mother to calm down completely, every time she looked down and smiled at me did she have to fight back a sob again, but her smile could not hide the sadness in her eyes. My father nudged me, and I looked up at him; looking away from my mother’s sad eyes.

He was breathing deeply, the sadness that had been in my mother’s eyes were mirrored in his deep blue eyes. No tears were touching his eyes or his cheeks, but I had never seen such sadness in his eyes before.
“Star, you should not throw this day away. Go out and play, it’s a beautiful day and your mother and I have a lot to talk about.” he said, a deep sigh escaping his mouth. “Just be home for dinner, I will talk with you then.”

“But dad, I want to…” I started, but was interrupted by my mother who gently placed a hoof over my muzzle, silencing me.

“Star, be a good colt and do as your father told you. You do not need to worry, we will fix this.” She said, her voice pleading.

It hurt me that they did not trust me; hurt me that they did not want to talk with me there. I do believe that I knew about what was happening, but still they did not want to talk with me close. I did understand why they did not want to talk with me around, but still had something deep inside of me ached as I heard those words; that they just wanted me to leave. And worst of all?
“Okay mom.” I said, releasing my hold around my mother and standing up. I tried to sound cheerful, but I did not succeed in that. I slowly made my way to the door, and for the first time this day could I feel tears in my eyes, but I fought them down, this was not the times for them.

I did leave them to it, to talk without me being close, even though I wanted to hear what they said did I turn around and leave.

~*^*~

I carefully closed the door behind me and stepped out into the sunlight that was shining down on the small settlement. The settlement moved with life, ponies made their errands, often stopping to talk with their neighbors. Everypony was happily keeping on with their life. Well, everypony expect me; I walked on the road, my head hanging low. I ignored the ponies that greeted me, ignored their questions, ignoring their presence. I only walked there, thoughts whirling around in my head. I might have been young, but that did not mean that I did not understand. I understood that they talked about me back in our house; I understood that they wanted to talk without me being there. What I did not understand was why.

Why would I have to leave the tribe? Why could I not learn what I needed here? What was war, and what had we lost ponies to? I did not understand this, and I had no answers. But I knew one who had. My determination rose, and I decided where to turn my tail. The determination steered my hooves, and I began to walk the same way I walked every day, walked towards my grandfather’s house. If anypony had any answers for those questions would it be him.

The walk to my grandfather’s house was brief; his house was placed in front of the small hill where we often trained, only a short distance from where I lived. The sun had nearly reached its peak when I arrived there, and it made me wonder just how long I had slept and how long time it had taken for my mother to calm down. Rays from the sun illuminated the dark wood of my grandfather’s house, wood that was of a darker material than the light trees I had seen in the forest. My grandfather had told me that the wood had been a gift from the sea serpent tribe, when I asked for what had he only laughed and told me that it was a gift for him and his daughter.

I looked straight at the door, a door with metal fillings of a phoenix and a sea serpent that twisted around each other in an eternal dance, my mind was focused on what I was going to ask my grandfather, what I wanted to know. Focused as I was at the task at hoof, did I completely miss the two ponies that stood at the door; guarding it and the ones inside. I did, however, notice when one of them took a firm grip of my neck and turned me away from the door.

The one who held me was a light green mare, who chuckled lightly as she looked down at me; a hint of amusement in her light green eyes.
"Sorry kid, the advisor has a visit from the leader, we have been told not to let anypony inside." she smiled sadly at me. "And that involves the advisor’s student and grandson as well."

"I have to talk to my grandpa Grass. Please let me inside, it's urgent!"

She released my neck and instead stomped her hoof to the ground, her eyes turned harder for a second and her smile slipped a little.
"Listen Star, I will not let you interrupt them; I have already had enough trouble since the last time you said it was urgent. Whatever you say, you being able to lift a small rock for more than one second is NOT urgent. I have been told not to let them be disturbed for or by anything, and I will stay by those orders. Now leave before I personally smack some sense in you so hard that you can not lie down for a week."

I heard a snort from behind me, I did not have to turn around to know that the one behind me was Rock, a brown earth pony who lacked all that other ponies would call intelligence. Grass jerked her eyes away from me, but not before I had seen that her eyes had turned to stone and her smile had disappeared completely; the snorting laughter behind me stopped abruptly.

Grass held her gaze at Rock for a few seconds before she looked back at me, a light, friendly smile on her muzzle.
"I'm sorry Star, but I will not allow you in there. But tell you what; as soon as they are finished will I let the advisor know that you wished to speak to him. Now go and play, a young colt like you should not waste your time standing around like this and look as gloom as you do now. You know how long of a time it might take them." her voice had returned to her normal friendly tone as well.

I slowly nodded, I knew that I would not be able to talk her into letting me in, not after last time.
"You promise?"

"I promise. Now, off and play with you." she said with a smile.

I slowly walked away; I could hear how Grass yelled at Rock behind me.
“You idiot, what did you think that poor kid…”

But even their voices disappeared as I slowly trotted away, my head hanging low. I was certainly not in the mood to go and play, but I knew a place where I could be alone and where my grandfather would most certainly look after me when he could not find me in the settlement, a place he had shown me years ago. A sacred place, not far from the settlement but far enough away that I was sure I would not be interrupted or found by anypony who did not look after me.

~*^*~

I lied on the stone floor, the giant crystalized window in front of me. Two gracious beings, beings with the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn, were circling around each other in the middle of the glass. One of the winged unicorns was as blue, nearly black, as the winter night sky, the other was as pale white as the sun when you looked directly at it a warm summer day. The beings were well known to me, the light one was fair Celestia, goddess of the sun and day, summer and life. The dark one was beautiful Luna, goddess of the moon and the night, winter and death. They were the harmony, the ones who controlled our daily life; the ones who controlled our life cycle. But a harmony could not exist without its counterbalance, not even the harmony of goddesses. And their counterpart was represented by the god that was inside their circle.

The god was a fierce being, its pony shaped head had the horn of a goat and the antler of a deer, a single tooth gleamed in the light. The body shape resembled that of a snake, a leathery wing of a bat and the feathery wing of a pegasus adorned its back. The being had four limbs, each of a different creature; the front legs were a paw from a lion and a talon from an eagle, the back legs were those of a goat and a lizard. The creature ended with a snake tail. Discord, god of chaos and destruction, god of spring and autumn; the being that balanced up the harmony of the goddesses with its chaos, helped us to see the harmony around us.

They were not alone on the window; they were the center part of it, but six other beings encircled them. The blue sea serpent, the brown wolf, the majestic manticore, the proud griffon, the fierce dragon and the eternal phoenix; each of them were represented here. They were said to each by creations of the gods, two beings created by each god. The sea serpent and the wolf had been the creations of the moon goddess Luna, the manticores and griffons had been created by Discord, the dragon and phoenix created in the fires of the sun that was Celestia.

Each of the beings had a tribe that worshipped them, six tribes for six beings. The three races; earth pony, pegasi and unicorn was each represented in each tribe. My grandfather had told me that the tribes did not agree about much, and that was why we had the market; to make sure that no tribe overstepped and hurt the others.

The same market which I would now have to go to, for reasons that I did not understand; on orders by my grandfather and mentor, the tribe’s adviser. I sighed; I did not know what I should think. My grandfather had said that it was for the best for the tribe, but that did not mean I would have to like it.

I could hear the loud screech behind me as the gigantic wooden doors opened behind me, a wind that was cold for being a summer wind gently stroke against me, stirring up the shallow layer of dust that covered the stone floor around me. I ignored it, I knew who it was, there was only one pony who was allowed in here; and that pony was not me. The only pony allowed in here was my grandfather, the advisor of our tribe leader and the voice of the phoenix to us. It was here the bigger rituals of the year was practiced, mainly the week long ritual of the solstice where we praised the goddesses for the sun and the warmth, but during the rest of the year was this place forbidden for the ponies in the settlement. And it was an area avoided for respect of the spirits that was said to dwell here, spirits of the dead and the phoenix himself. My grandfather had brought me with him here once, showed me this place. I had been as perplexed by the beauty of this window then as I was now.

“And the power of harmony and chaos worked together, designed the world after their bidding. They created the earth ponies, the unicorns and the pegasi. They created the dragons and the griffons, the phoenix and the sea serpents, the wolves and the manticores. Land rose from the oceans; great rivers sprang forth, dividing the lands with water. Big mountains rose up to the skies, high enough to pierce the heavens. Trees and flowers bloomed, and more creatures sprang forth; inhabited the new world. And balance was and has been since then.”

Crystal Fire slowly walked towards me; the sound of his soft hoovesteps against the stone floor, echoing together with his soft voice as he spoke. I could feel his eyes on me, but I did not care about it; my eyes where still on the windows. The sound of his hooves against the floor stopped.

“Star, I know that you have a lot of questions, and I will try to answer them all; both as your mentor and your grandfather, but also as the advisor of the phoenix tribe. I do not want this anymore than you, but I do this for you, you will thank me one day.” he said, his voice softer than I had heard it ever before, a hint of sadness within it.

I could feel how my own sadness grew, and for the first time did it all come through; the tears started to roll down my cheeks. And still did I not turn around.
“For me? Do you do this for me? You made my mother cry, how can it be for me?” I said, sadness and anger thick in my voice.

“Yes, I do this for you. YOU will do something that no other pony ever have done, you are not going to have one master but six of them, each of them sharing their knowledge of the world around us, each of them training you. You can tie bands with the tribes on a completely new level; you can unite us in a way that we have not been united for years!”

“But why me? I never asked for this, I just want to live here, live as my mother and be a part of our tribe!” I said, sobbing. I could hear how he walked towards me, and could soon feel me being embraced by him. I started to cry against his chest.

“Why is not something I am allowed to speak about, but I do believe that you have the right to know. You never asked for this, still it is what you are born to do. We do not decide our entire life. Let me tell you a story, a story about something stronger than the gods.”

I sobbed a couple of more times, trying to wipe the tears out of my eyes.
“I… I would like that.” I said, my voice still thick after my crying, but I had control over it now.

“We will have to wait some before I tell it to you, that is a story that needs a different… environment. Anyway, we only need to wait until the sun has set. No, do not worry, I have talked with your mother and father and told them that I will take care of you tonight; they agreed on that I could tell you so that they did not need. They wanted to, but I do not think they understand everything.”

“Then I will ask a question. What will happen?” I asked, freeing myself from the hug and laying down, eyes on my grandfather.

“That depends on you. You are to join me to the market and meet the leaders and advisors of the other tribes. You will go be apprentice to each tribe, both their advisors and their leaders; you are to learn from them their knowledge, learn who you are and be able to control yourself and the magic around you, as well as understand their tribes. The first tribe you will go with are the Sea Serpent tribe, under their advisor Sea Walker and their leader Ocean Tamer. He will help you with your blockade, help you remove it. Then it’s up for you to learn from them, allow them to teach you. You will get intensive training, they have one year to learn you as much as they are able to, and each of them will do their hardest to make you learn; give you the knowledge you will need. You are destined for something great, Star, something bigger. The winds of change are blowing, and the six tribes are in the middle of it. The spirits have spoken with us, and you are the one who will make us come out alive on the other side.”

“Why am I the one to ride out it? How? And why do you fear that the other leaders want to attack us?”

He sighed.
“Listen Star, and listen closely; I’m going to tell you things I should not tell anyone, it is forbidden for me to speak about it. But you have right to know, I will make an exception for you. We do not know why or how, only that you are the one. The astral leaders know, they have told us. They fear you, not what you are but what you might become. They are afraid that you will take control when you have made us come out on the other side of the storm, afraid that you will make the phoenix tribe the leaders. They fear the future, and fear is a strong power that might destroy ponies. The astral leaders have tried to interfere, and that is why you are to be learned from each tribe. Each tribe will mark you; each tribe will have a place in your heart. You will hopefully make your decisions with all the tribes in your mind, not only the phoenix tribes; that is what they hope. But they still fear you.”

“So you mean that they…”

“Yes, Star. They might try to kill you. But listen closely, you have nothing to fear around the advisors or the leaders, they have accepted this solution. But there are others you will have to avoid; the advisors and leaders are not the only ones who know about you. Others might try to hurt you, others might be after you. We have known from your birth what you were destined for, we have prepared for years now for the day when you would be ready to learn. You can feel your magic to such an extend that we are able to work with it from there. You are aware of your blockade, and awareness is the first step to be able to do something against it.”

“Who wants to hurt me? And why?”

He sighed again, his voice made him seem tired as he continued speaking.
“For as long as the tribes have existed have it been those who want us to remove each other, those who want to make sure that we do not befriend each other. Anypony you encounter might be one of them, we have not been able to pinpoint them down; but we do know that they exist. And we can not go around and believe that they do not know about you, we must not take that chance.”

“Who are they?”

“We do not know who they are, nor who leads them or how they get their information. What we do know, however, is that they have been behind a lot of what have happen between the tribes. Most importantly is that they was behind the misunderstanding that nearly lead to the extinction of the Phoenix tribe.”

“The what?”

“That, my student, is a subject for another time.” he said and smiled at me, before he turned his eyes to the window.

“If that is what you wanted.” I said, following my grandfather’s gaze.

The sun had started to set, the red color shone through the window; colored the ground around me with a deep red color as well.

“Do you see it Star?”

“See what?”

“Look closely” my grandfather instructed me.

I did as I was told, focused even more on details of the window.
“No, not like that.” He said with a chuckle. “Do not focus on the details, focus on the entire picture. There is a time to focus on the details, but if it does not give any result, then you have to stop it and try to see the entire picture as it is.”

I focused less on the details, tried to look at the entire picture at once. And then I saw it. The red light from the setting sun was reflected on something inside of the glass, creating small red lines which connected into a star. The creatures and the gods were all trapped inside of the star.

“I see it I see it. It is a star, trapping the gods and their creations!” I said, my voice contained a hint of eagerness in it.

“What you see is Sidus, a being stronger than any other. She is said to be the balance of the world, the creator and beholder of the gods. As the goddesses Luna and Celestia are the part of her creations that represent harmony and Discord is the part who represents the chaos is Sidus the being who represent the utter balance. Very few know about Sidus, it’s a secret that is well guarded, it’s a legend long since forgotten. A legend I will tell you, so listen very closely; and keep it to your heart. You never know when the star might listen for a direct wish.”

I curled up behind him, listening as his voice took me to another time, another world; another life.

~*^*~

“You are not getting away with this!” the red earth pony snarled, speaking with the beings within the shadows.

“Oh, is that so?” a cold, rasping voice answered from the darkness around the earth pony. “I do believe that I already have. You see, this is long since over, I have won and you have lost. And as the rules state am I free to take your life.” Laughter was heard from the shadows, before it turned to a cough attack.

The red earth pony snarled.
“You are hurt; will you really survive until the moon is full? I know of your powers; in full moon is your body restored no matter what damage it has on it. As long as you are alive that is.”

“Oh I will survive. You however, will not.” the rasping voice nearly whispered now. “Goodbye.”

The earth pony could not do anything but listen as the steps from the beings in the shadows grew fainter and fainter, to ending up disappearing completely. He sighed and started to try tearing through the ropes that held him firmly, but to no avail; the ropes held like steel around his body. He looked around himself in the temple room, but he could not see much with the limited light that the lone torch gave him. What he could see were the big snakes that started to crawl towards him, ready for their meal, tasting the air around them with their forked tongues.

He relaxed, his head resting against the cold stone which he was tied up upon. A lone star shone upon him, and he did the only thing he could think about.

He prayed. He prayed to be released from the ties, he prayed to be saved from the bindings. And Sidus heeded his calls for help; the great star removed the ties that tied up the red earth pony.

But instead of ties were there now snakes, hissing and tasting the air. The earth pony could only look in horror as the snakes started to eat on his flesh, slowly killing him with fangs they should not have.

Sidus had heeded the call; he had released him from the ties and released him from the bindings, but in a way that did not change the balance of things. The earth pony’s time had come, but the star does always heed a call for help.

~*^*~

“But Sidus will only help in a way that does not challenge the balance of how things should be. So be careful what you pray for.”

“That was a great story, but why is that a secret?” I asked.

My grandfather smiled at me.
“It is a secret that is based on the solo fact that Sidus will only heed the calls of them that knows the consequences; she will only head the call of the ones who know that their prayers will be answered by her.”

“Then why did you tell me? Will not the thing that is for balance always happen anyway?”

“While her power is the greatest out there are there still some powers that can alter small parts of it. And if you are trapped in one of those powers, then she might be able to help you. I told you this story, because one day it might save your life and in that way save the tribes.”

“What powers is that?”

“Dark powers, powers which should not be spoken about.” he said, his face taking a grim expression. He slowly rose to his legs, and I followed his example. “There is one more thing I want to show you, Star; a place only known by the advisor of the Phoenix tribe.”

I looked around the temple; it was dark, only the moon was spreading its pale light through the window, dimly lighting up parts of the temple.
“Are you really supposed to show that place to me?”

“I am not, if you follow the rules.” he said, his horn enveloped by a dim light. “But I’m going to show it to you anyway, he have asked me to guide you there, and I will heed that.”

All the torches on the walls sprang to life, their warm red light spreading around the temple. It was not a big temple; the temple was only a single, circular room. Nearly no ornaments existed in the room; the cold stone floor was as bare as the walls. On a podium in the middle of the room stood a grand statue of a phoenix, the tribe protector as it was known as. The golden statue reflected the light that was blessed upon it from the torches, twisted it so that it seemed to be burning. The phoenix statue and the crystal glass were the only decors in the otherwise austere room.

My grandfather smiled at me.
“What I’m about to show you is knowledge you must never give away, you must never tell anyone about it. It might endanger our entire society should this information be heard by the wrong ears. Do you understand Star?”

I could only nod as I looked up on him. His voice had sounded pleading, as if he would show me anyway but hoped that I would promise to never speak about it. I realized that a nod would not be enough.
“I promise, Grandpa, I will not speak about what I’m about to see.”

He smiled at me, relief clear in his eyes.
“Then follow me, and stay close. Danger lurks in the shadows where we are about to go.”

He slowly walked towards the podium and I followed him close behind. When he reached the podium did he start to talk, his voice had grew cold as ice; I could feel a shiver run through my spine as I heard him speak.
“Eternal Fire, open your vault. Let me, the one who speaks in your name, inside. Allow the one who are your voice to your people to enter your realm, to meet you face to face. Allow me inside of your vault.”

A loud shrieking was heard, a shriek of stone that drifted against stone. I covered my ears at the painful sound, but my grandfather just looked ahead; his eyes locked at the podium. And before my eyes did the entire podium rise, standing up on four pillars. A staircase went down in the dark.
“As I said, stay close.” my grandfather said, taking the first step down the stairs.

I followed close behind, a little nervous about the whole thing.

My grandfather’s horn glowed dimly, lighting up our surroundings. The stair case was of the same dark woods as my grandfather’s house, polished until it gleamed, reflecting the dim light. A very thin layer of dust covered the steps, but instead of the dust gray color was it nearly white. The stone walls were as white as snow and reflected the light around us, making our body cast shadows in every direction. I could hear the shrieking again, and felt a low thud in my body as the podium closed up behind us, trapping us in the spiral that was the stairs.
“How far is it?”

“We are soon there.”

“What is it you wanted to show me?”

“That you will see.”

We walked down for what seemed like hours, but it could not have gone more than five minutes until we reached the floor. The room we were in was circular, around the size of the podium above us. In the focus of the room stood a well; filled to the brim with a red liquor. Flames seemed to dance around it, flickering around it but not spreading any light. The only light was that of my grandfather’s horn as it was reflected in the well; casting red light around it.

“What is that?” I asked, nearly hypnotized by the movement of the flames.

“This is a gateway, a way for anyone to contact the great phoenix.”

“Why did you show me this?”

“He wants to meet you, to talk to you.”

I looked at my grandfather.
“But I talked with him yesterday.”

“You did?” my grandfather said, surprise clear in his face.

“Yea, when I was at the waterfall with my friends.”

My grandfather only looked at me.
“He requested that you should see him once it was decided that it was time for you to leave, so I believe it is best to allow you to him anyway.”

“How do I get to him then? And why?”

“Why does only he know, he do not share everything with me. You drink the water, it will bring you to him.”

I nodded and trotted to the well, leaning down to take a deep sip of the red water therein. I noticed that my grandfather did not go with me.
“Aren’t you going with me?”

“No, this is a travel you will have to do alone. I will wait for you here. Now go, do not let the Eternal Fire wait.”

I took a deep sip of the water, and the world around me disappeared.

~*^*~

My body was burning; fire soared through my veins, fire that was pumped out by my heart. The pain overwhelmed me. And just like that was it gone, replaced by the steady beat of my heart. I slowly opened my eyes.

I was at a mountain plateau; snow drifted around me but did not cool me down. Heavy white clouds covered the blue sky, but it was light enough for me to see. The plateau ended abruptly, the cliff plunging down to the darkness beyond. The cold air around me smelled crisply of new fallen snow.

“Come here…. Star….” a weak voice whispered in my ear. I jumped at the sudden sound, looking around me. It was then I spotted the cave opening.

“Yes… I’m in the cave… come here… Star…”

I slowly walked towards the cave, looking into the darkness. I could not see anything inside of it.
“Step… inside… the light… will come...”

I did as I was told, and as I stepped inside did the light arrive with me, illuminating the room. It was an oval room, a big throne on the far side of it. The entire room was decorated with gold and red ornaments, books and scrolls adorned the big shelves around the room. But what really caught my eye was the being that was lying in front of me.

It was the Eternal Fire, the big phoenix, who laid there on the ground in front of me. But his inner glow was gone; no light emerged from his body. His wings was wrapped around his body, his eyes were unseeing. A crack ran along his beak. His feathers had lost their colors, they were dust grey instead of the glowing red and gold they had been.

“Welcome… Star…” he said, coughing between the words. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this.”

“What happened to you?” I asked before I could stop myself. I realized my mistake and tried to soothe over it directly. “If you do not mind me asking.”

He laughed weakly, a laugh that ended in a cough attack.
“War happened… I’m weak, Star… As our entire tribe is. Everyone… but you… you are strong… Star.” he said, a sad smile on his beak.

“What is war?”

The phoenix seemed to try to laugh again, but it only resulted in a new coughing attack.
“War… is a horrible thing. War is hate… war is to destroy the balance… war is to kill the ones you love. The tribes… they had hated each other… under so long time.” He stopped to cough once again. “And the hatred… it grew. Ponies started to kill each other for tribal things... that is the madness that is war. To kill each other… for no reason. Our… tribe, the tribe of the phoenix… we were hated… by most… we were few… we were easy to attack… but the dragons saved us from extinction. But a fatal… blow was dealt against me.” he said, his voice not much more than a whisper, his eyes filled with sadness.

“What happened to you? How could ponies do that to each other?”

“Hatred… shows the worst in each one of us. My power… comes with the ones that believes in me… the inhabitants of the phoenix tribe. We have always been few… but my strength does not need pure number… my strength needs the fire that burns inside of them that… believes. But the… ponies of our tribe… do not believe as they used to. They are… afraid. Afraid of what we lost in the war… afraid of what might happen again… afraid that I will not be able to protect them… that I will fail them again.”

“What did you fail us with?”

“I failed… with protecting the one who lead you. Not even… my powers could save him… Not even… the power of the Eternal Fire… could heal his death. We were plunged deeper and… deeper… into the war… our tribe got closer and closer to extinction… the only reason we survived was that… the sea serpent withdrew their forces… and that the dragons arrived.” He seemed ashamed.

“The dragons?”

“The dragon riders… of the dragon tribe… fearsome warriors… created by the fire of the dragon itself… the strongest… there is…”

“I have never heard of them.”

“Have you heard… about the war?”

“No?”

The phoenix coughed weakly again.
“Then there is your answer. You do not… have unlimited knowledge Star… Not yet… at least.”

“What will happen to you?”

“I will… die… I will be… turned to ash… until that day comes… when the phoenix tribe… believes in me again…”

“But you can not die! You are the Eternal Fire!”

“Even eternality… have its limit… but as the phoenix… will I be reborn… when my ashes are lit… again. But… this is not… why you are here… Star.”

“Why am I here then? Why did you want to meet me?”

“I wanted to… meet you… so that I could… teach you.”

“Teach me about what?”

“About harmony… and discord…”

He seemed to relax a little, his coughing not as rough this time as it had been the other times.
“Harmony and discord… the two counterweights of the world… the two things that create balance in this world. One can not live… without the other. And still… do they try to… remove each other… When Sudis… created the gods… did she also create twelve items… the six Elements of Harmony… and the six Elements of Discord.”

At this point did I just sit and listen, I did not even ask him any questions as he took a brief pause to catch his breath again. His chest moved less than it should as he panted for more air. And yet he kept talking.

“The… Elements… were given to the gods… when they created… us… did they split the elements up… one of Harmony… and one of… Discord… to each creature created. Each tribe had… one of… each. They are items… of great… power… that has… been lost in time… The balance… has been contested… since then… the ponies… can not… live in balance… with each… other.”

“Lost? What do you mean lost?” I said, confused about the fact that something like that could be lost.

“They were used… a long time ago… by… twelve… strong ponies. They used it… in a way that Sidus… did not… like. They were used… not against each other… but against… balance itself… And it was… close to succeeding… The balance… was nearly destroyed…”

“What happened?”

“The… astral leaders… happened… Back then… could we interfere directly with the world around us… we saw what was about to happen… and stopped it before… it was too late…But the controllers of the elements… they were furious… they locked us… in.” he said, a pained smile on his beak.

“How could they do that?”

“The… elements… combined… outshines even the stars in power… But no… rules apply… onto a power that… great. Not even… Sidus… could destroy her own creations…”

“But how can that power be greater than Sidus? A magical item can not be stronger than its creator!” I said, recalling some of the basic magic rules.

“But the… elements… was not created… at the same time… She… rested between each… element. The elements… combined… have nearly… six times… the power of its creator… if you combine… discord and harmony… then you have the utter… power of balance… a power… twelve times as powerful… as the creator of balance.”

“That… that is insane! How could she create something like that? And why?”

“Insanity… is in the eye of the beholder… No one… knows why she created them…”

“Why did you tell me all of this? What does it have to do with me? The elements were lost in time right?”

“Each… combination of element… harmony… and discord… have one… fail safe… They can not… be controlled to their full power… without a star… born… that controls it…”

“But if they have that fail safe, how could they then be used against balance?”

“We are… born… with a free mind… Sidus… might have us caged… but even a caged animal… might chose in which end… of the cage to sleep. A star… born… is something… that can move… more freely than… the rest of us… They are not… immortal… but their powers… are the powers of Sidus himself…” he said, his voice had lost a little more of its power.

“And I’m one of these star born?” I said, lending forward some to be able to hear the answer.

“We… believe so… Your power… is greater than any other power we have seen… since we became imprisoned…”

“But what am I to do?”

“That… is something I can not… answer… That answer will you… have to find yourself… It is a… lot information to give you… but it is… necessary…”

“I-I understand.” I said, trying to process this information. “What is the difference between me and others then? How will this change my life?”

“Will you are… able to move more… freely than the rest of us… will Sidus demand your full… attention when… she wants something… Normally… will she nudge us… in the direction she want us… but she will… try to force you… where she wants you…”

“But you said that others have gone against her will!”

“The willpower… have been strong in them… She… could not break them… But if you… look past all this… then you are as normal as all the others… You have your own dreams… your own desires… your own goals…” he said, a violent cough attack following his words.

“And where can I find the elements?”

The phoenix laughed lightly, for once not triggering a cough attack.
“You… can not… If you are… destined to use the elements… then they will come to you… Others… have been star born… and have lived as simple… advisors or helpers… in their tribes…”

“Then why did you tell me about the elements?”

“The chance… is still there… A chance of you… being found by them… the winds of change… is blowing… not even the gods… not even Sidus… knows what change… But your time here… Star… is over… you have to… go back…”

“When will I meet you again?”

“When… the time is right…”

The world did once again disappear around me.

~*^*~

I took a step back as the well with its red liquid and dancing flames reappeared in front of me. My veins did not burn this time at least.

“You are back.” My grandfather said behind me.

“How long was I out?” I asked, noticing the small pearls of sweat that adorned his forehead.

“About three hours. The time in there goes differently from the time here. How was he?”

“Weak. How did he get so grandpa? Does nopony believe in him?”

“Some of us do, but it is not enough. Let us go upstairs, I will tell you on the way.”

I followed him as we walked up the stairs.
“It has not always been like this.” he started, sadness in his voice. “After the… incident with the other tribes did some of the tribe members loose the trust in our astral spirit. It was a slow change; he grew weaker over a long time. At some occasions, like the birthing of a new foal, did the believing return to the hearts of most, and he grew strong again. But that did not happen often, and he was soon blamed again for something. It was easy to blame him for the years of bad crops that have been; years that have put us in a tough situation with the other tribes.”

“But I saw him just yesterday, he was strong then! He glowed of power, his feathers was red and golden! That change that occurred can not have happened in a single day.”

“I can not answer how you were able to see him like that yesterday; that is a mystery for me. I have visited him every week since the time I became the advisor, and he have only grown weaker for each passing week. I’m afraid that soon will I only see ashes when I get there.”

“How comes that he turns to ash if he loses those who believes in him? What happens to the others?” I asked, wanting to know more of our story.

“He is a projection of the phoenix, he have adapted to that body and have inherited all the abilities that the phoenix have. While the others live on the sheer number of believers, and thus can not die before all of the believers are gone, does he live on the fire of the believers.”

“So if everypony stops to believe in him…”

“Will he turn to ash and wait for that fire to return.” my grandfather finished the sentence for me as we emerged from stairs under the podium. It had once against raised, but this time had I not heard any sound as it did, neither did I hear when it closed behind me. I tried to suppress a yawn, but I was bound to fail. My grandfather smiled at me.

“I do believe that the hour is way over your bed time, my young colt. I will walk you home, and you are free for the rest of the week. Use the time well, say goodbye to your friends and pack. We will travel together with the others to the market.”

“What others?”

“The ones who are going there on the mission to buy and sell from and to the other tribes, the ones who make sure we can survive another year. They sell our overflows, the small things we do not need but others might, and at the same time do they buy the things we need.”

“And during that time will you and Flame Raiser talk with the other advisors and leaders.”

“Yes, and you will be with us. You will come with us and meet your future masters, the ones who shall train you to work around your blockade and to do what you must in the future.”

“But what if I can not do it?”

“Do not fear, Star. I believe in you, and Flame Raiser and the rest of the leaders and advisors believe in you. And most importantly, the astral leaders believe in you.”

~*^*~

Author’s Note

I might not write so much as I would want these upcoming weeks; I have a lot of other things to do, mainly in school. I wish that I could update with at least one chapter / week, but unfortunately do I have to put some things in front of this story. But I have some good news, this “episode” or “part” of Star Swirls life have grown from being planned to 5 chapters to being planned to 7 or 8.

Thank you for reading, and I’m really sorry for the grammatical errors that exist within the contest.
Comments and critic are appreciated!

Chapter 3 - The Meeting

A week is a long time when you are bored. In a week might you be able to find time to do a lot of things, things of great importance. But this week passed faster than I wished, the day for my departing came faster than I had wished it too. My mother and father would not come with us, neither would my friends; they had other things to do and the farewells had already been said. But still could I not make myself get up from my bed, abandon the warm sheets for a future I might have accepted but still did not like that it was forced upon me. I could hear the light autumn rain outside my window; the tears of the sky were lazily drumming against my window. The autumn sun warmed my room; its warm gaze through the rain drops encouraged me to get up from the bed.

But I ignored the encouragement, I stayed there in my bed, looking as the few raindrops made their way down the windows; the sun shining through them and casting twisted light in my room. The trees I could see outside my window had started to change color; instead of the green scenery I was used to where it orange and red that dominated the trees. I could hear the soft knocking on the door, but I ignored that as well; I really did not like this. But my father was never the one to be stopped by a closed but unlocked door; he slowly opened it and walked to the bed I laid on.

I looked away from the window, meet his gaze.
“Star, do not be like this. It is hard enough for your mother and me as it is – please do not make it worse.”

I sighed, I could see the tears in his eyes, I knew how hard this had to be for them.
“Sorry dad. I know why I have to do this, but it does not seem fair!”

“Life is not always fair, son. But remember that it is for the better of the tribes, sometimes you have to sacrifice something for them, that is parts of our lifes.”

“Have you sacrificed anything dad?”

He sighed and looked away, his gaze taking the path mine had earlier; looking over the scenery outside the window.
“More than I want to admit. But that is a story for another time. They wait for you, do not let your grandfather wait to long.”

“Why won’t you go with me? Why do I have to do this alone?”

“You are never alone, Star. Your mother and I will both be with you, just not physically. As long as you think of us will we be with you. And you know I have duties here, our tribe can not spare both your mother and I to go with you; and neither of us are trade ponies so we are not able to switch places with those who are either.” he said as he gently ruffled my mane, his gaze had left the scenery outside and rested now on me.

I tried to push his hoof aside, but he was way stronger than me; the only thing I was rewarded with my struggles was his laugh; but he did remove his hoof from my head. I was taken with surprise when he embraced me in a hug instead; holding me tightly against his body.
“It will be fine Star, I will try to come to the market next year and meet you there. The same goes for your mother.” he said, slowly releasing me from the hug and standing up. “Now get ready, do not let them wait all day; they want to depart as soon as possible. I believe that your grandfather would be happy if you got out there and he would not have to come in here and get you, do you not think that as well?”

I nodded slowly in the embrace and felt how he after a small, barely noticeable, hesitation released me from it.
“I’m going to miss you son.” he said with his voice thick with tears as he smiled at me.

“I’m going to miss you to dad.” I said, returning the smile.

“Go now; do not let your grandfather wait.”

I nodded and hastily hugged him before I trotted over to the two saddlebags tucked into a corner of my small room. I hastily looked over them; made sure that everything I wanted to, as well as the things I had been asked to, take with me was in there. The five scrolls about magic I had lent from Crystal Fire and that he had asked me to take with me to the other tribes was in there, together with the three small, perfectly round orbs of a strange blue stone that I had found at the water close to the training grounds last summer. Empty parchments and three quills of hawk feathers lay in the saddlebag as well. I had also brought with me the necklace I had been given as a gift the day I had been welcomed into the tribe.

It was a beautiful necklace, crafted by one of the most skilled earth ponies there was in the village. It was crafted as a talon, hanging from a silver link, which gripped a deep blue jewel. Even thought it was special crafted for me had I never worn it, it was tradition not to wear any jewels before you had found your special talent and achieved your cutie mark.

And your cutie mark was nothing you forced to appear. I might have been the only one in the settlement who did not have any yet, but I was also the youngest with nearly half a decade and Autumn Leaf had only recently acquired hers. And it was nothing I felt bad for; it would come when I found out what I would do the rest of his life, what would make me special. And if the astral leader had been right then I had really nothing to worry about; it would come to me and I would not have to search around.

I made sure the necklace was securely locked into the small oak tree box that was it container and lay it down into the bags again. My father still sat on the bed, looking at me as I struggled to get the saddlebags on my back. With a sigh did he make his way to me and helped me with them.
“Go on now, do not linger any longer.” he said.

“Bye dad.” I said as I trotted out the door, leaving my room and my safe life behind. I could barely hear him returning the farewell as he whispered it.

~*^*~

The rain lightly dripped on me as I stepped outside the door; the smell of wet grass hitting my nostrils. The entire settlement was in movement, preparing the few of us who were to leave for the market. The sun shone through the rain, giving some warmth to the hard working ponies. Three carts were being prepared, two ponies overlooking as the rest of the tribe worked around them. I quickly trotted to them, smiling brightly at my grandfather and the earth pony he talked to.

My grandfather returned the smile, and I stopped in front of them, politely awaiting them to finish their talk.
“Should be ready before this hour is over, Raiser.” my grandfather said.

Flame Raiser, the bright yellow earth pony with a red flame vortex as a cutie mark, was the leader of the Phoenix tribe. He was an old earth pony who was said to be able to create fire just to look at anything inflammable; although I had yet to see that for myself. He smiled brightly at me as I approached them, a smile that could challenge the sun itself in lightning up his surroundings.
“You seem to have everything under control Crystal, as usually.” he said without taking his eyes from me. “Now, I believe I will have to talk some with your grandson before we depart, and I do believe that you have to get your own things.”

“Yes, Raiser, I will leave you two alone.” my grandfather said before he turned to me. “I will let your mother know where to find you so that she can say her farewell before we depart.”

I only nodded and he left us, leaving me standing alone together with Flame Raiser.
“Walk with me, Star.” he said before he started to trot away from the preparation, trotting towards the training grounds.

I trotted besides him, awaited him to speak. But we just walked together, the light rain wetted my coat, but the rain was more than welcome; I had no problem with it and this kind of light rain would not get into my saddlebags. We had nearly arrived at the training grounds when Raiser finally spoke up.
“Good, you have learned the importance of patience. That was something I had problem with at your age, got me into a lot of trouble.” he said, chuckling lightly. “It is also something that will help you with the other leaders. They will expect much in you, and most of them will look after flaws in you. I do not think you can understand how sad I am to make you do this, the life of a young colt should not be used like this; you should be free to do what you want.”

“Flame Raiser…” I started.

“Just call me Raiser – I was never fond of my birth name either way.” Interrupted me quickly before he motioned for me to continue.

“Raiser, I have accepted this and if it will help me to work around my blockade then you have nothing to apologize for either. I overheard my grandfather talking about it some days ago, and even if I do not understand everything do I understand that this has to be.”

Flame Raiser had stopped in his tracks, his gentle purple eyes looking at me.
“You are bright kid; you understand more than most would. Is there anything I can do to help you? Let me know, and I will make help you to the best of my ability.”

“I would like to know who the other tribe leaders are if you would not mind telling me.”

“I will tell you, but I will give you the short version. A pony in your position should really not have any of my thought about the other leaders, you have to stay neutral and make your own picture of each one of them.” he said before he cleared his throat. “The tribes are six in total, each controlled by a leader with the help of an advisor. Four of these are females, the rest are male. The Timber Wolf tribe is controlled by the earth pony Quick Stride, one of the calmest ponies there is. Her advisor is Lightning Fang, a pegasi whose bite is harder than his bark. The Sea Serpents on the other hoof are ruled by the pegasus Ocean Tamer, a leader who as often joke his day away with the others in his tribes as he work with keeping it running. His advisor, the unicorn Sea Walker, does most of the work; something he loves to do according to himself. The Manticores leader is the strong Light Heart, an earth pony mare who is stronger than most of the stronger bucks. Her advisor is the gracious Talon. The Griffons gathers under Feather Wind, the earth bound pegasus. His advisor is the half paralyzed Gust Dancer, one of the kindest souls there is out there.”

He paused to take a breath.
“And lastly do we have the Dragon tribe, who assembles under their leader Flaming Fury, the only one you can always believe to get an honest answer from. His advisor is the baby dragon Leather Wing, son of the great dragon Sun Ray himself.”

“A dragon?” I asked, not really believing what I had just heard but still excited if it was to be true.

“A baby dragon, young when you measured with our lives and the lives of the dragons, but never say that directly to his face; he is not very fond to remember his fairly young age. He is, in fact, not many years older than Sunny Daze at home; still he possesses knowledge greater than most ponies do. Those are the leaders and advisors of the tribes; you will meet them all at the meeting in one week.”

“How are the meetings?”

“To be honest, they are boring. But they have to be done; the tribes must work together to avoid the mistakes of the past. We discuss what have happened during the year, if any tribe needs help with something or desire something. We also pass on if any tribe member wants to challenge a member of another tribe for a duel over something; although it was very long since the last time that happened.”

“What will I have to do?”

“You will have to sit and listen, and not speak unless you are asked to. Even though you will have the same privileges as any other of the assembled do you do best in not using them. If you decide to, however, is there nothing we can do to stop you; but I beg you not to, the Phoenix tribe have it hard as we do and that might make them rethink in take you in as apprentice.”

“I promise you that I will not use my privileges, I will only talk when talked to. I do not believe I have the knowledge for this sort of things anyway.”

Fire Raiser seemed to relax a bit, although it was hard for me to say. He did, however, smile at me.
“You are really brighter than most of the kids, I’m sure you will do great.”

I noticed that my grandfather had started to walk towards us, my mother close behind him. Fire Raiser had noticed as well.
“Talk to your mom, we will wait for you. Do not take too long, we have to depart soon.” he said before he walked towards the two ponies, leaving me behind.

I looked after him as he trotted towards my mother and grandfather, speaking a few word with them and then go towards the wagons together with my grandfather, leaving my mother walking alone towards me. I could see tears in her eyes, and for a moment did my imagination make me believe that the rain fell heavier than it had before. It did not take long time before she had arrived to me.

“Are you ready Star?” she asked, her voice more serene than I thought it would be.

“I am as ready as I can be.” I said, smiling weakly at her.

She embraced me in a tight hug.
“Be careful my son.”

“I will mom, I promise.”

“I will make sure I can come to the market and meet you next year. And if it is something, do not hesitate to contact us; Sea Walker and your grandfather can easily come in contact with each other.”

“I promise that I will contact you if it is something.”

She hugged me tighter; I felt that it became a little harder for me to breath.
“I will miss you.”

“I will miss you to mom.” I said, trying to breath.

My mother realized what I struggled for and released me, smiling at me.
“I’m so proud of you son. Do your best and show the others what the Phoenix tribe really is all about.”

“I will do my best mom.”

“I know you will. Now go, do not let the others wait for you.”

She smiled warmly at me, her eyes at the brink of being flooded over. I hugged her lightly before I turned around towards the waiting wagons and with a last goodbye did I start to gallop towards them.

The light rain had finally stopped, the sun shone down on me as I galloped. My hooves drummed in the wet grass, the scent that always follows rain was thick in my nostrils. Even though I was about to have my life changed forever was that nothing I worried about right not. I saw it as an adventure.

And all adventures starts with a small step, for us were that step the one that started the loaded wagons towards the marketplace. Besides me, my grandfather and Fire Raiser were there six others who would go with us to the market. They would go there to trade for the items and objects that the Phoenix tribe would need the upcoming year.

We slowly left the small settlement that was the home of the Phoenix Tribe, and it felt as if the Eternal Fire himself watched over us as we started our journey to the market place. I myself walking together with my grandfather and Fire Raiser in the front, excited to see new places and learn new things.

~*^*~

It took us three days to reach the island known as “The Tribes’ crossing”. I had galloped up a small hill; the evening autumn sun throwing its orange light at the scenery that lay in front of me.

Four stone bridges connected the small settlement known as “The tribe’s crossing” with the mainland, each of the bridges had a dusty path leading to them. The entire island was surrounded by a log palisade. A small harbor lay at the southern part of the settlement. A big ship was anchored in the middle of it, a blue banner with a sea serpent in silhouette moved like a snake in the breeze.

The settlement did not exist of any houses, instead were tents raised around the area. These tents where gathered in three small clusters around a big tent in the middle of the settlement and there where already more tents here than it was houses in my home village. It was between fifteen and twenty raised tents at each cluster, which outnumbered us greatly; we had only brought with us four tents. Wagons were spread out in the clusters as well, the lowest amount in a cluster being eight.

Each cluster had a banner waving in the breeze and the same banners stood in front of the middle tent. I could easily recognize them from scrolls I had been reading the past week: The brown wolf banner of the Timber wolf tribe, the crimson red banner of the Dragon tribe and the ocean blue banner of the Sea serpent tribe. There were three banners amiss; the white banner of the Griffon tribe, the green banner of the Manticore tribe and lastly our own banner, the golden banner of the Phoenix tribe.

The same banner that swayed behind me and which reflected the sun tenfold in a golden circle around it. We had mounted it on the lead wagon as we had broken camp that morning. It was the banner that would announce our presence to the other tribes.

“It seems like the Griffins and the Manticores have yet to arrive.” Flame Raiser said as he walked up behind me. “I wonder what is keeping them up – they are usually the first to be here.”

I stayed silent, I did not know. The wagons passed us and started to make their way down the hill, but all I could do was to stay there and look over the Tribes’ crossing. It was so many tents, so many ponies trotted around and prepared for the market that would be the next day. This small settlement was bigger than the entire Phoenix tribe!

Flame Raiser had stayed beside me on the hill, looking over the settlement below us.
“It is quite a sight is it not?” he said, his voice soft.

“Yea… it is.” I answered, still trying to take up the sheer size of the market. “How big are the other tribes?”

“The phoenix tribe is the smallest tribe with its one hundred residents. The dragons are the biggest tribe with their five cities. Each of the five cities is close to ten times as big as our small village.”

I quickly did the math in my head; the result shocked me even more than the sight of the market village.
“The Dragon tribe contains over two thousand and five hundred ponies?” I could not believe it, how could a tribe be that big?

“Three thousand and five hundred if you count all the ponies living outside the five big cities.”

I was very glad that it was physical impossible for a jaw to hit the ground if you stood up, otherwise would mine have done it right there. I tried to process the numbers, and my jaw dropped a little more.
“How can the other tribes be that big? And why are they sending so few here if they are that many who might need something?”

“The Phoenix tribe has never been a big tribe Star; we have always been the smallest of the six tribes. Centuries ago did we all come here in need, all the tribes needed something from another and that kept us together. Today are we the only of the tribes who are still dependent of the other tribes at the market; the others are here only to uphold the traditions. They all have their own craftsponies that can create the things the tribe needs, they could just send their leaders to this market for the meeting and be over with it. But instead do they honor us with sending traders who help us survive.”

“Why do we not just live all at the same place? Why do we not trade with each other and help everypony?”

He sighed and looked up at the sky, seemingly thinking how to put what he was about to say. The gentle breeze caught his mane, making it whirling around his muzzle. The breeze brought with it the scent of the water and the grass from the plains below us.
“We have tried to live together in a single big tribe before, but to no avail. We are too different – each tribe has their own guardian they worship. Each guardian has their own tradition, and a clash between the different believes was unavoidable. Each guardian guided their tribe to a place holy for them and we have lived separated like that since. Trading between tribes would be possible, but none of the other tribes would get something for it.” He sighed as he said this, looking at me. “But we are grateful for what the other tribes do. Their merchants never exploit our weakness, they take fair prices and pay higher than they would need for our wares – each year do we leave with more than we arrive with.” he finally said, each word seemed to have been chosen.

I looked at the wagons that were making their ways down the hill, first now understanding why one of the wagons was nearly empty.
“Was that separation a part of the war?” I asked. “Was it a part of the hatred?”

Flame Raiser looked away from me, and looked down the hill. He started to trot as he spoke to me and I hurried after him.
“The war happened a long time after the separation, but the separation had its part in the events that lead to the war.”

“What happened?”

He sighed, a painful expression flashed over his muzzle; flashed too fast for me to be sure that it had been there.
“That is not my thing to tell you, you will get to know all about it soon enough. But whatever you here, do not think that the Phoenix lay behind the war. Many believe that it is so, but that is not the truth.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just keep those words to your heart Star – always seek beyond what others say.”

I was about to say something else, but he silenced me before the words left my muzzle.
“We are not talking about the war Star. Please, not now. You are bound to learn about it sooner or later, but it will not be from me - and especially not here.” Tears seemed to form in his eyes with those words, but as with the painful expression earlier did the tears disappear before I was sure that they had existed at all.

I had not noticed that the wagons had stopped and that we had caught up with them. We slowly made our way past them, Flame Raiser taking his place at the front with my grandfather besides him. They motioned for me to step forward, told me to stay between them. Together did our tribe walk forward, our banner announcing our presence to anypony who looked.

~*^*~

I stood in front of the giant tent that would be the place for the meeting the upcoming week. The night was silent around me, only interrupted every now and then by the sounds from the ponies in the camps around me and the few crickets in the grass. The sky was clear, the stars and the moon shining down on me.

We had arrived to the stone bridge that connected our path with the island as the sun had begun to set. The orange and red rays of the setting sun that were reflected on the Phoenix banner seemed to set the world ablaze as we crossed the bridge. The Dragon tribe had their encampment directly to the right of the bridge, a big encampment with nineteen tents that surrounded a bigger one. It was outside the bigger tent that the Dragon banner lazily moved in the wind; catching the burning light as much, if not more, as the Phoenix banner did.

We had made our way to the small area opposite the Dragon tribe’s encampment, directly to the left of the bridge. I could not help much with the raising of the tents that had been done, but I did as I was asked. That is, I had been running around and checked if anypony needed help. No help had been needed, and the tents had quickly been raised, four tents standing around the tent where Flame Raiser, Crystal Fire and I would stay.

But I had grown tired of listening to them speaking in the tent, they had talked about the absence of the two tribes that had yet to arrive and I had quickly stopped to try and follow what they said and had started to only listen with a half ear. I had not been as tired as I should have been, and the curiosity had taken its hold over me. I had exited our tent and entered the warm autumn night, and I do not believe either of the older ponies had noticed my departing.

The encampments had been silent when I had exited the tent. Small torches placed in the ground spread their weak light around them, helping the moon illuminate the surrounding area. The small smoke from them made its way to me, making me cough lightly as I inhaled it. I had not minded the absence of other ponies; I believed that most others had gone to sleep. But something had felt wrong, the air had been to still, the sounds muted.

It was then I saw him for the first time. A black silhouette in the night, standing against the tent that would held the meeting in a few day. If he had not stood there would I not have seen him, his black coat would have blended in perfectly with the surrounding night shadows. But now did I see him as he stood out against the nearly white background. He stood with his back against me, looking at something that I could not see, something at the base of the banner of the Phoenix tribe.

My curiosity had been taking over and I had started to trot towards him, doing my best to keep the sound down. A light crack of a twig under my hoof had been enough for him to peak one of his ears. I had stopped in my track, holding my breath and hoping that he had not heard me. My hope had been crushed as he turned around, looking down at me with brown, expressionless eyes. I had managed to meet that gaze for a full minute before he had smirked at me, but the amusement had not reflected in his eyes. They had been expressionless, as if he had no feelings whatsoever. My blood had frozen to ice at that gaze and I had turned away.

I had felt his eyes on me for a long time, before I had heard laughter in the distance. I jumped in surprise when a voice as sweet as sugar and smooth as silk had whispered in my ear.
“So you are the one known as Star, are you not? How… pathetic. I thought you were something special.”

I had felt how he smiled as he said that, a smile that had soothed me.
“Do not worry, brother. I will not harm you.”

I had been confused at his words; I did not have any brother or sister. But it had made me curious so I had looked back up again.

Only to be jumping back when I had found him standing right in front of me, standing at my level, eye to eye; I had staring into the eyes that where as a brown, endless abyss.
“You have a long path before you will be as strong as I am brother. Fight it, do better than I did.”

“Do better than you how?” I had wanted to say, but no sound had emerged from my throat.

“Come with me, Star. Let me show you your true power. Let me give you the strength that will define you!” he had said and stood up, before he slowly had started to trot towards the stone bridge furthest away from where we stood.

I had hesitated to follow him, something felt very wrong. It was as if a cold hoof had lied on my back and had been chilling my entire body. But I wanted to know, I was curious about who the unicorn was; what the power he talked about was.

So I had followed him. Slowly at first but then quicker as my curiosity started to burn inside of me. But it had still been something odd about the whole situation, the air had been to still and the sound had been as if muted. But it had not bothered me, not then. I had happily trotted after the stallion, he who called himself my brother.

A light rain had started to drip down on us as we walked, but my coat had not been soaked; it was as if the rain had just passed right through me. No moon had shone down from the sky; our way had only been illuminated by the torches that had been placed along the road.
“Stop in your track, Star.
Or be prepared for the war.
The time to go after him is not yet here.
Do not follow him as a puppet to a puppeteer.
He is not the way to your powers receive.
Those powers are for yourself to achieve.” a voice I remembered from a dream had whispered to me from the darkness.

I had stopped in my tracks as I recognized the voice.
“Seeing Eye, is that you?”

“It is me, the one brought forth by your magic.
I’m here to prevent something tragic.
You are not to follow your brother.
The one to learn you are another.”

The stallion had stopped in his tracks as well, turning around to look at me. His friendly smile had turned to a vicious snarl, but his brown eyes had been as empty as ever before.
“Do not listen to that old hag Star. She believes she knows what’s happening, but she is only a paw to a greater power. Just as you are to be if you do not follow another path! Is that how you want to end up, following orders and being unable to control your own fate?”

“Do not listen to your brother Star, he is a master of illusion.
He tries to mislead you from the path with his allusion.
Look at the ground around his hooves.
No shadow resides there or moves.
This is an illusion and you need to awake.
See through it, realize that it is fake.”

“Do not listen to her brother – she does not know what she is talking about!”

But I had listened to the voice of Seeing Eye, and my mind raced. I thought back at what I had just experienced. The sounds that had been muted in the encampments, the absence of other ponies and the rain that had only passed through us, without soaking us at all and without making any sound as it struck the earth. Had it all been an illusion? I had looked at the stallion in front of me, had seen the fury lit up his face, had seen his expressionless eyes. I had let me eyes drift down to the soil around him.

I had not seen any shadow; it was as if the light from the torches had just passed through the black unicorn in front of me. I also realized something else. The grass around the path was not wet, nor was the soil that was the path.

“This is all fake.” I whispered into the night.

“No!” the stallion had practically roared, scaring me and making me take a step back. “This is the real world, my brother!”

“Look at him Star and look beyond.
Look at what would be, should the two of you bond.”

I had sat down on my haunches, confused with my eyes on the black stallion.
“Wha…?” I had started to ask, before the world had changed around me.

I had stood tall at a hill; my brother had been standing next to me together with the silhouettes of ten other ponies. A city had lain in ruins at the base of the hill; the forest around us had been on fire. My brother had reflected the light from the flames, lighting up the night. No moon had been on the night sky, neither had the sun.
“The world is ours, my brother. Not even Sidus himself could stand up against us. We are the true rulers of this world, with powers given to us by birth right!”

He looked at me and I had met his eyes, for the first time seeing expression in them. Pure hatred had burned in those eyes. Hatred against me, hatred against the world.

I had found myself laying on the soil, the black unicorn stood above me.
“This is not an illusion, brother. Follow me and all you wish will come true – your power will be bigger than that of Sidus himself!”

“No.” Had I whispered

“What did you say, brother?” the unicorn had hissed, his tone dangerously low.

“I said no! Get away from me – I’m not listening to you!”

He had smirked and laughed, his eyes had been as expressionless as ever.
“It is not as if you have a choice, brother. You are weak, you still have your blockade!”

With those words had his horn started to glow, a nearly pitch black darkness enveloping it. I had squirmed as the magic had grabbed me, levitated me up from the soil.
“I had hoped to make you go by free will – all had been so much easier then.”

“Release me.” I had shouted, fear gripping my heart.

“Why would I do that? You are my key to redemption!”

My heart had started to beat faster, the panic growing inside of me. I had hammered furiously at the blockade that kept me from my magic. I had been able to feel the magic in my veins, had felt it burn and chill my blood. But I had not been able to reach it. The fire had burned stronger and stronger inside of me, I had grown colder and colder as it chilled my veins. But still had I kept hammering on that blockade.

I had been rewarded by a brief flash; all my energy had escaped out of my body at once, emptying me. The black magic that surrounded me had disappeared in the night together with my energy. I had heard the unicorn scream in frustration and agony, before I had been surrounded by silent.

I had laid there, eyes at the now cloudless sky above me for a couple of minutes before I had regained enough energy to do anything. I had tilted my head from side to side, looking at my surroundings. It was then I had seen her, Seeing Eye. She had stood there and looking at me, her gentle golden eyes had had tears in them.
“You are free of the illusion at last.
But your way to control is still vast.” she had said softly.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that your powers have you started to learned.
But that the price was high, your magic has burned.
Your magic is still fragile at the best.
The power you will be able to control is still at rest.”

My head had hurt, it had felt as if somepony stood and hammered on it with a hammer. So instead of asking what the hay she had meant had I tried to stand up. But my body had still been weak; I had felt how my legs had given up under me. I had stumbled forward and would have been lying on the ground again if it was not for Seeing Eye catching me. She had just been standing there, allowing me to rest against her side.
“We have to get you to bed.
That magic cannot have been good for your head.” Had she whispered to me.

The black night had enveloped us as we slowly made our way towards the Phoenix tribe’s encampment. I had heard the faint sound of hooves against a stone that occasionally rose from one of the encampments, but other than that was the night silent and still; not even the wind stirred up anything.

“Wait…” I had murmured as we walked past the tent where the meeting would be held. I had started to trot upwards the hill, Seeing Eye had stayed behind but I could still feel her gentle eyes on my back.

And here did I now stand, in front of the giant tent that would be the place for the meeting the upcoming week. The night was silent around me, only interrupted every now and then by the sounds from the ponies in the camps around me and the few crickets in the grass. The sky was clear, the stars and the moon shining down on me. My eyes drifted towards the banner of the Phoenix tribe and the small inscription at the base.

I moved a little to the side, allowed the moon to spread it lights at the inscription; making it possible for me to read it. The small inscription made my blood freeze.
“We will meet again, brother.”

~*^*~

Seeing Eye had started a commotion when she led me to the tent. A lot of the ponies from the tribes had stared at her, some had even shouted after her; words I mostly could not make out. But some words, words from a familiar voice, had I been able to make out.

“You are not welcome here, zebra. State your business and leave this place at once.” Flame Raiser said as he stood in front of us, his eyes burning with an inner fire and his coat seeming ablaze, his voice thick with hatred.

“I’m not here to start a war.
I’m just here to protect Star.” Seeing Eye said calmly, her soft eyes on Raiser. I imagined seeing tears in her eyes, but they disappeared as soon as I noticed them.

“Star, step away from her this instant!” my grandfather had shouted at me, his horn glowing and his eyes sharing the fire of Raiser’s eyes.

But I stood firmly there, did not listen to what they said. The air was completely still as I met my grandfather’s gaze.
“Go now Star, you are safe for now.
But we will meet again, that I vow.” Seeing Eye said as she pushed me against the encampment.
“And you, the one they named Flame.
Listen to me, and redirect your aim.
The betrayer of the Phoenix has returned again.
And his return will bring with it great pain.
Warn the tribes for what’s coming their way.
Otherwise they will all have to prepare to pay.
Remember the mistakes of times that have passed.
And balanced peace might come at last.”

I turned around at the spot, only to see her slowly fade away in front of my eyes. I blinked a couple of time, could not believe what I had seen. I heard steps at my side, but my eyes where still on the spot where Seeing Eye, the zebra, had disappeared.
“It is time to go inside again, Star.” my grandfather said to me.

I slowly rose to my feet and turned to the tent, started to trot. My grandfather felt in behind me.
“Why is she not welcome here? What is wrong with the zebras?”

My grandfather sighed.
“The war between the tribes was not the first war. Long before that did the tribes unite against a force stronger than anything else, the zebras. Many of our great cities were lost and they killed the one who had railed the tribes together, Shooting Sun, Flame Raisers father. Then they just stopped, they retreated back to their cursed land and have not been heard of for centuries. But zebras are still feared, she should be happy that she escaped with her life.”

“But she saved me!”

“That does not make us look different on her. Now, we will not speak more about this, and you should feel happy for not getting a punishment for leaving the tent without letting us know. Now go to bed, I will contact the other tribe advisors, an emergency had come up and we have to hurry up the meeting.” my grandfather said, a hint of anger heating his voice.

“Does it have to do with the black unicorn?”

“You saw him?” The anger in my grandfather’s voice disappeared and was replaced with fear. “You did not listen to him did you?”

“He called me his brother. Is he the one who are called the betrayer of the Phoenix?” I asked, keeping away his promises of power.

“Listen to me Star, you are NOT his brother. You will get to know about him soon enough, but it is too early for you to receive that knowledge. Marsh to bed now, you are tired and will need your energy.”

I wanted to protest, but something in my grandfather’s eyes kept me from it. But instead did I do the only thing that I could think of.
“Goodnight grandpa.” I said and trotted into the tent, lying down on the comfortable bed therein.

~*^*~

It was in the evening the upcoming day that the two missing tribes arrived, traveling together from the north. The two banners, the snow white of the Griffon tribe and the forest green of the Manticore tribe, swayed lazily in the wind; reflecting the rays of the setting sun.

Below the banner of the Griffon tribe walked a pegasus. The pegasus had a cyan coat and lime green mane; his left wing nearly nonexistent and his right wing nearly three times as big as a normal wing would be. He walked upright, using his right wing for balance as he pushed a strange device in front of him. The device was as a big cushion on wheels, and on it sat an old unicorn; her coat was light purple, close to silver, and her mane had a deep orange color. I recognized these two from what my grandfather had told me during the day. They were Feather Wind, the pegasus leader of the Griffon tribe and his advisor Gust Dancer.

I shifted my gaze to the other banner, the banner of the Manticore, and the two going at the front of it. The first thing I saw was the enormous body mass of Lion Heart, the earth pony leader of the Manticore tribe. She was bigger than any other pony I had seen, I doubted that Flame Raiser reached more than to her neck, and her purple coat and red mane glowed in the light of the setting sun. Above her flied a gracious pegasus, a red coat seemingly ablaze in the sun and her white mane flowing behind her, who was scanning the area with her right eye. The eye patch which covered the left eye gave her away as Talon, the advisor of the Manticore tribe.

I stood together with my grandfather and Flame Raiser at the north bridge, awaited the arrival of the two other tribes. They were traveling a lot faster than we had; dust whirled behind them as the nearly one hundred ponies were travelling towards us. Talon dived towards us, folding up her wings just in time to stop before she crashed into us.
“What is this about, Crystal? What is so important that we have to arrive a day earlier?” she said, no hint in her voice of exhaustion from the speed they must have kept to arrive here earlier.

“That is nothing we are going to discuss in the open, not when everypony can hear what we are talking about.” my grandfather answered, still not taking his eyes from the tribes that walked towards us. “How many have you brought with you this year Talon? You seem to have more behind you this year than ever before.”

“There is a change in the wind, Crystal, and you know it as well as me. The astral leaders are afraid, afraid that Star will follow the past of HIM, afraid that he will betray us all as the last one. A blow like that would shatter us all – shatter us like we shattered ourselves during the sundering. The Manticores and Griffins have one hundred and fifty nine merchants with them this year. We will make sure that the entire encampment is safe at night. The enemy has made a first move,” she lowered her voice; it was barely that I could hear what she said. “An assassin attacked Lion Heart only a week back. A highly skilled one at that passed our lines of defense. A pony was spotted on our way here as well, but he disappeared before I could take him.” She looked bister and a little afraid.

Crystal and Raiser, on the other hoof, looked terrified.
“This is grave news, and must be settled immediately!” Crystal called out, but was quickly hushed down by Raiser.

“No, Crystal. It is not the time to hasten the meeting, quite the reverse actually. These ponies need to rest, they have pushed hard to get here as fast as they have, and the market will not be able to be held before tomorrow in any way. We can have our meeting during the market time – I believe the rest of our tribes can take care of it. Crystal, go and talk with the other tribe leaders and advisors, let them know that we hasten the meeting even more, let them know that the meeting is tomorrow when the sun have reached its peak.” Raiser said, his voice still and calm.

“Who put you in charge?” Talon inflicted. “Who gave you the power to control this meeting after your will?”

“I was not put in charge, Talon. I took it after I had heard the facts and gotten to know the situation. There is more behind this than you could possibly know, that assassin is not the highest of our troubles. A foe even more powerful has revealed himself. HE is back.” Raiser’s voice had grown grave at these words.

I could see how Talon shook at this words, he flinched backwards like he had gotten a blow to the head. He did, however, recover quickly.
“Another reason that you should not be the one in control then. Anyways, I will listen to you for now, but I do hope that you will honor the meeting rules and be the one to start the voting for a meeting leader the first thing tomorrow.” Talon said before he, without awaiting a respond, flew back to the green banner of the Manticore Tribe and landed besides Lion Heart.

The two tribes seemed to have stopped and await her return, since the leader and advisor of the Griffin tribe headed to the green banner as well and started to talk with the Manticores, their low voices unable to make out over the distance.

“Star, come with me.” Crystal said. “It is time for you to meet the other leaders and their advisors. However briefly it will be is this of importance.”

I just nodded and followed him, tried to figure out what all this was about. It felt as if two or more puzzle pieces was amiss, and what was an assassin anyway? I decided to check that with my grandfather tonight, during the short time we used for lessons.

~*^*~

“Assassin? This is not good Crystal, why are we not reacting on this directly? Why have we not been informed about this earlier?” Sea Walker, a light blue unicorn with a deep blue mane, the advisor of the Sea Serpent tribe, nearly shouted out. “How did Talon think, not informing us about something of such an importance?”

The gust had slightly risen in power, the Sea Serpent banner moved more violently in the wind that it had before, small clouds raced in the sky, trying to block out the autumn sun but to no avail. The sun fought against it and its light shone over us, the heat welcomed in the cold autumn wind.

Ocean Tamer, a deep blue unicorn and the leader of the Sea Serpents, shook his head; his yellow mane rippled like water at the motion.
“Slow down, Walker, you are getting ahead of yourself.” he said, his voice slow as if he was choosing every word carefully. “Nothing good would come of a rushed decision; we should all think this through. If one of us has been targeted by the enemies’ assassins, then we should all fear it. They might be any were around us, hitting at any moment. But who can we trust? We know that they exist in every tribe, tainting us towards hatred for each other, playing behind a shadow curtain. Can we trust anypony here? Are any of the leaders a member? The questions are many, and not one we can answer. Do they know that we know about the assassin, or do they hope on our fear towards each other that the Manticores would not spread that information? Only time will tell I’m afraid. I will have to consult this more closely with Walker, I will see you at the meeting tomorrow.” he said, his voice as soft as slowly flowing water.

“As you wish, Ocean Tamer.” Crystal said, before he turned to leave.

“Brother.” Sea Walker said, his voice a little colder than the wind around us. “I expect you to take your duties as voice of the Phoenix over your affection towards your grandson at the meeting, we all know how it will go otherwise…” the threat passed over my head, but Diamond seemed to catch it.

“You know very well that I will do what have to be done, brother,” he said, his voice as cold as ice. “My mistakes of the past will not be repeated. Come now, Star.”

He trotted away, not as much as a look back in the other unicorn’s direction, and I followed him closely. But my eyes drifted back, and I could see the hint of a smile on Walker’s muzzle, together with the burning hatred that was putting his eyes ablaze. Hatred directed against my grandfather’s back.

Our next stop was the Timber Wolf tribe, who had their encampment just across the road from the Sea Serpent’s own. We were greeted by Quick Stride and Lightning Fang themselves at the base of a couple of trees that stood at the edge of their encampment. The scenery soothed me more than I believed it could, I felt at peace under the protection of the tree crowns. The sun shone down lazily here, spreading a green light in the small clearing. The gust was gentler as it whistled through the trees, whistling a slow lullaby of peace. Quick Stride, the leader of the Timber Wolf tribe, laid half asleep against a tree, her brown spotted shinny figure nearly blending in into the tree as she held me in a firm gaze with a tired looking emerald eye. On her flank was the picture of an old oak tree inside of a very light green shield.

“An assassin? That is outrageous! What kind of cowardice beat within the body of our enemy, to send another to die while doing their dirty job?” Lightning Fang, the pegasus advisor of the Wolf Tribe, nearly shouted out. His grey mane did practically stand straight out as he stalked back and forth in front of us.

“Calm down, Fang, assassins have in the past been a normal way to remove somepony from a position you have not wanted them in. Our enemy has always worked from the shadows – this step is not as surprising as it once would be.” Diamond said behind me.

Fang answered him, but what he said, I did not hear. I had started to move towards the tree upon which bark the tribal leader of the Wolf tribe rested. She smiled at me as I closed up, a warm motherly smile that reminded me of home. Her shinny frame rose slowly as she breathed slowly.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

Her eye shared the smile that existed on her muzzle as she spoke.
“I’m fine, Star, but I thank you for your concern. How are you this beautiful autumn day?”

I sat down on my haunches, my eyes on her single emerald one. It was soothing to just sit there, with the green grass under me and the trees around me.
“I’m tired. The others are talking about an assassin or something like that and I just stand beside them, not understanding completely what this is all about.”

Her face became blank for a second before it turned to stone, and she turned it to look at me with both eyes.
“Did you say… assassin?” she asked, a small hint of fear in her voice; a fear which was reflected in her eyes.

I looked away, unable to meet her gaze.
“Yes. What is an assassin anyway? Everypony seems to think that they are bad and cowardice, and seems upset that the Manticore tribe has not talked with us about it earlier.”

“Assassins are bad, they are sent out to end somepony’s life without being backtracked to the sender should they fail. It is a way to stay in the shadows and still get the deed done. But the most alarming thing is that the Manticores did not warn us about it, warn us that the assassins where back. I thought, I hoped, them gone forever.” she said. Her voice had lost its fear, sadness had overthrown it.

“Are they part of the hatred? Of the war?”

She smiled at me.
“You could say that, they have always been there in the past – ready to help whoever had the money. But when the war ended did the tribe find them and… removed every one of them. Now you say that they have returned?” she sighed. “This is bad news, and gravely bad as that.” She slowly pushed herself away from the tree, and walked to me. I soon found myself in a light hug, which was over faster than I could react. “You have given me something to think about, Star.” she said to me before she turned around and shouted at her advisor. “Fang, we have matter to discuss. I’m very sorry Diamond, but this is a discussion for the meeting.”

Fang looked back at her, sadness in his eyes, before he said some quick words to Diamond and walked towards the Wolf’s encampment.
“Take care, Star.” Quick Stride said before she turned away from me, walking towards the encampment as well.

I looked at my grandfather, who looked surprised to have been interrupted so abruptly. I had to suppress a laughter as I walked towards him, but he quickly recovered as I closed in to him. A smile spread over his muzzle.
“I believe I will have to thank Quick Stride later,” he said. “I would never have been able to stop that conversation should she not have interfered.” He seemed to think about something for a moment. “We only have Flaming Fury and Leather Wing left now, the Dragon tribe.”

I just nodded at this and together did we start to cross Tribe’s crossing, making our way towards our encampment and the Dragon encampment beside it. The sun spread its last rays down at us, illuminating our way in red and orange.

~*^*~

The sun had dropped down the horizon when we arrived to the Dragon Tribe encampment; the moons first soft rays had replaced its sister’s stronger ones and were now our main light, illuminating the encampment with the solo support of the torches which where placed in the ground. The silver eye in the sky looked down on us close to its full glory, encircled by the stars. I could not help but smile, the night was the time I enjoyed the most. It was a time of calmness and serenity, of purity and cleansing.

The encampment was silent, the soft mumbling inside of the tents where the only thing that could be heard above the low sound of the crickets in the grass. Small lights could be made out from the tents, silhouettes of ponies clear against the tent sides. Only five ponies were outside in the night. My grandfather, myself and six guards who stood at the big tent of the center of the encampment. Two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies stood alert and watched us as we walked towards the tent. One of them, a pegasus with a grey coat barely visible in the weak light, turned around and entered the tent, the others keeping their eye on us.

My grandfather stopped a bit from them, lowering his head to whisper to me.
“I do believe they have already achieve the information about the assassin, otherwise they would not keep this many guards around them. I think that,” he said but was interrupted mid-sentence by the same grayish unicorn that had entered the tent mere seconds ago.

“Flaming Fury and Leather Wing are welcoming you, Diamond Fire and your grandson Star to enter their tent,” he said with a hint of command in his voice.

“Of course, Steel Wing, thank you,” my grandfather said as he trotted the last part to the tent and entered. I followed tightly behind him, looking wide eyed at the six guard ponies. They, on the other hoof, completely ignored me and just watched their surroundings, alert and ready should something happen.

The inside of the tent was warm, and a small fire burned with bright flames from the middle of the tent was spreading both light and warmth there within. A couple of scrolls laid on a small dark colored oak desk, neatly placed in symmetry with each other. A small bed was placed alongside one of the walls. Four pillows, which truly looked comfortable, were placed in a small circle around the fire. One of them was occupied by an earth pony with a coat the same color of the flames in front of him. He looked up at us, the flames of the fire reflecting in his eyes and a welcoming smile on his muzzle, as we entered the tent.

“Welcome, Diamond. It is pleasant to see you again,” he said, his whispering voice barely able to reach my ears. “You are welcome here as well, Star. It have been a long time since I last had the opportunity to talk to you directly, although I do not believe you remember me.” He smiled weakly.

“Thank you, Flaming, it have all too long since we talked – a year if I do not recall wrong. I take it on your guards that you have been informed about the assassination attempt on Lion Heart?”

He smiled sadly; the flames reflected in his eyes seemed to die out.
“Indeed I have heard about it, and taken actions to make sure of the safety of my own tribe. The guards outside is not for myself, but for Leather Wing. He is not happy for it, but we cannot risk our standing with the dragons by a knife from the dark.”

A low growl was heard from a dark corner of the tent, making me jump in surprise.
“And I still do not like it, Flaming.” a soft rumbling voice called out. What I had mistaken as the dark corner yawned widely; rows of sharp white fangs gleaming in the fire and a forked tongue that tasted the air. I starred at the rows of fangs as the creature in the corner slowly opened an eyelid, a sapphire blue eye with slit pupils meeting my gaze. “You know that they will not be stupid enough to put me as a target.” A small tickle of smoke emerged from his nostrils at his words.

“We have been through this before, Leather. Even though it seems unlikely am I not going to take that risk, you as a representative of the dragons should understand that.” Flaming said without looking back at the dragon. “You should understand what kind of wrath Sun Ray would seek upon us all without caring about who were to be the target.”

He grumped as he rose from his corner, his blue eyes still on me. Leather Wing, advisor of the Dragon tribe, was a fearsome creature. He stood nearly as high as Lion Heart had, his leathery wings tucked to his sides, but even folded were they sticking out a great bit over his back. Blue spikes rose from the shiny black scales on his back, spikes which shared the color with his eyes as they reflected the flames from the fire. His stomach was of a lighter black color.
“This must be Star, the star born.” he said as he looked at me with a judging eye. His eyes stopped as he looked at mine, and it felt as if he was staring straight into my soul. “I knew that he was young, but not that he would be this young. Is he really ready for this?”

“He is not ready yet, Leather. That is why all the tribes must train him, so that he can learn from all the tribes and not only one, see the world as a mix of all and not one alone,” Flaming said. “You are going to train him as well as the rest of us are. The dragons will have their speaking in it, as all the astral spirits will.” He looked at us, and a smile spread over his muzzle. “How impolite of me, sit down if you wish, we have much to discuss.”

I was quick to sit down on the soft cushion, resting my head on my fore hooves as I had my eyes on the dragon who sat himself down next to me. I had to suppress a yawn, even if I had not been tired when we entered the tent was the cushions and the comfy warmth from the fire enough to make me feel tired now.

“He might be young, but he is quick to understand. A year might seem like a short amount of time, but I believe in him, he will not have any problem to learn.” my grandfather said to the Dragon’s tribe leader.

What Flaming answered did I not hear, the combination of him talking as low as he did and that Leather Wing nudged me with a wing and started to talk removed every possibility of that.
“Are you nervous?” he whispered to me, careful so to not interrupt the others talking.

“For what?” I asked, silently questioning myself if he, as an advisor, should not listen to the talking between Flaming Fury and Diamond Fire instead of speaking with me.

“For leaving your tribe, traveling to a completely new one, with no friends and nopony you know.” he sighed. “Well, at least you get an opinion. My father sent me here as a representative of the dragons, I was the only one small enough for your buildings.”

“I… I do not really know what I think.” I admitted. “I guess I do not really know until I have traveled there.”

“I guess it will take time for you to adjust, things seem to be handled differently in the tribes. It did take a long time for me to adjust to the life around you ponies, I rarely ever eat meat or a jewel here, but I find it a pleasant life to be here; connecting the dragon tribes with the dragons.” He slowly lay down as well, resting his long neck and head on his fore legs, his tail tucked along his body and his eyes on me.

“But did you not have a choice? Did they just send you here? What kind of father does that?”

“The same kind who sends you here knowing that you can only chose one opinion?” The dragon asked me in return. “My father, Sun Ray of the great eastern kingdom as he is called here, sent me as a connection between the ponies and the dragons. During the great war here did the dragons come to the Dragon Tribe’s help. My father battled alongside Flaming Fury during those years, and thus were the dragon warriors born, ponies fighting with the techniques and magic of the dragons. When a pony with a special gift is getting his or hers cutie mark are they sent to the dragons to train. These ponies have always been born in the Dragon Tribe, and I replaced the last ambassador here years back when she was too big for your cities. My work here is more than just a connection between the dragons and the tribe, it is to find those that can be trained, and I have yet to find one. They are rare, only one has been born the last two centuries and that is Flaming Fury.”

“What do you mean with only one opinion?”

“Wait, they have not even told you?” The dragon shoot an angry glare towards my grandfather before he looked back at me. “How could they ignore to tell you something like that? When the meeting is held will the leaders and advisors talk through everything as normal, and when the time is ready will we call after you. We will ask you if you accept the guidance of us all, and we expect you to accept it.”

“But I will accept it! They said that it might be an attack against the Phoenix Tribes should I not!”

Leather’s eyes seemed to burn with an inner fire.
“So they told you about that, that the other tribes are afraid of a repeating of the past, but not that you are given an opinion?” He sounded furious as he spoke, and jet black smoke escaped from his nostrils.

I flinched at his voice.
“I-I eavesdropped.” I stuttered, my ears hanging in shame.

“Oh…” The dragon’s feature softened up some, the fire in his eyes died. “But they still did not tell you about that you are given an option.”

I yawned as the sleepiness tried to take its hold over me again.
“What are the options then?”

“You accept or you refuse, that’s how easy it is.”

“What happens if I refuse then?” I asked.

The dragon looked dumbfound and held his eyes in the distance. A minute passed, two minutes. Finally he answered.
“I do not know… I should know but I do not.”

I closed my eyes and we laid there in silence. But my mind and body was tired, and it did not take long before the sleep overtook me, sailing me to the dream lands.

~*^*~

The market was, plainly said, boring. Diamond Fire and Flame Raiser had left early for the meeting, telling me that I would be summoned when it was time and that I should listen to Rose Fiddle until then. I had agreed and we had since then wandered the market, the sun’s rays spreading its autumn warmth through a thin cloud layer.

Rose was the one assigned to take care of buying the things which our small settlement mainly needed, and thus slowly walked the market with a cart on her back, idly chatting with me and looking after things the settlement needed.

I, on the other hoof, had finally felt the nerves kicking in. I did not pay any attention at all for my surroundings, more than once walking into somepony else and hastily saying a “sorry” before keep walking.

The same questions repeated themselves over and over again in my mind. What should I do? What would happen if I refused? But I had already accepted it for myself? But back then I did not know that I had a second opinion. What should I do?

“Star!” Rose shouted beside me, breaking my train of thoughts.

I stopped in the middle of the track, noticing that the entire market had gone silent at Rose’s shouting; not even the birds interrupted the silent. It hanged there in the air, and I shrunk together during the weights of all eyes on me.

It only lasted for a second, however, before most of the other ponies had gone back to their business. That was, everypony expect three. Me, Rose and the guard who stood beside me and had his eyes on me, a frown on his muzzle.
“You have been summoned to the meeting tent, Star.” he said with a voice that was used of being obeyed. It took me a second to catch the words and realizing who it was that stood in front of me. “If you would follow me.” It was not a question as much as a command, and at his words did he turn away and start to trot towards the middle of Tribe’s crossing.

“Yes Steel Wing, I will follow.” I said as I started to trot after him, trying to keep his peace as he walked with long strides. “Bye Rose,” I shouted behind me, the nervousness I had felt only second ago now forgotten, my eyes forward and my mind settled.

It did not take long before we stood outside the tent, the autumn sun had breached through a part of the layer, enveloping me and the tent with sun. The sound of the market was loud even at this distance. The guards who stood closest to the tent flap only nodded at me as I moved the tent flap aside and stepped into the darkness of the tent.

The tent flap closed behind me, sealing the warm tent shut; closing out every sound from the market just outside. Before my eyes had time to adjust to the dim light inside of the tent did the crack of wood against stone fill the air; making me jump in surprise. I quickly eyed my sides and saw an earth pony on both sides, each of them holding a simple wooden staff in a firm grip; the same wooden staff marked their white flanks. They were like mirror images of each other.

“Star of the Phoenix tribe has entered the tent of the tribal leaders, who have sent after him?” they asked in union.

Six voices called out from the darkness, the six voices of the advisors.
“I, one who speaks in the position of advisor, have sent for him to enter our tent; to sit at our meeting.”

“The advisors have sent after Star of the Phoenix tribe. Do the leaders of the tribes accept him at this meeting, do they accept an outsider to sit with them, getting the full rights that the rest of the ponies assembled?” the two earth ponies once again spoke up, still talking in union.

Six new voices called out, one barely hearable, the voices of the leaders.
“I, one who speaks in the position of leader, accept Star of the Phoenix tribe to sit with us in this meeting, to get the same right that the rest of us who are assembled.”

“Then it has been settled. Welcome Star, to the meeting of the tribal leaders and the advisors, welcome to participate in this meeting as a full worthy member. Together with the rest of the attendants of this meeting are the tribes future in your hooves.” the mirrored ponies at each side said before once again driving their staffs into the stone tiles which lay in front of them, once again creating the cracking sound.

The two staff keepers exited the tent; allowing the sound of the market inside of it for a second before the tent flap once again sealed out all the sounds. It was first then that the braziers lit up; throwing their light in the room. I covered my eyes from the sudden light, yelping in pain as I felt backwards on my haunches.

“Welcome Star. I’m sorry for the… overdoing, but it is tradition. You are now here as a full worthy member of this meeting, although we only have one question left.” Quick Strides soft voice called out.

I removed my hooves from my eyes and looked up, for the first time seeing the inside of the tent. Each leader and advisor sat on cushions in front of their respective banner, all eyes on me. They were relaxed, but the air was stiff.

“The question is what to do about you, Star. The meeting has talked long and well, and we have come to the agreement that the best would be if you took apprenticeship under each and one of the tribes for one year, thus getting six years of learning and knowledge of each tribe.” Ocean Tamer continued.

“But, we cannot do anything like this without the acceptance of the individual in question.”

“Do you accept?” Lion Heart said, her voice abrupt.

“I do.” I said, seemingly interrupting my grandfather as he had opened his mouth to speak.

All the leaders seemed to start breathing at once, each of them seemed to have held their breath awaiting my answer.

“Then it is settled, Star will take apprenticeship under each of the tribe for one year, changing tribe at each meeting. The first is, after our agreement based on what Star must learn, the Sea Serpent tribe.” Diamond Fire said, smiling approvingly at me.

~*^*~

I stood at the bow of the Great Serpent, the ship that would take me to Harbour, the main settlement of the Sea Serpent tribe. I looked over the calm water, and felt the gentle autumn breeze catching my mane as the autumn sun warmed the world around me, spreading its evening rays over the world.

It was the end of my foalhood, and the start of my life as an apprentice. But I wore a smile on my muzzle, I was happy. Even if it would take time before I would meet my father and mother, or even my grandfather, again, did I feel something inside of me that bounced around in joy. I were going to a new place and would learn to know new ponies, and even get the training to move around my blockade!

So I left my foalhood behind me at Tribe’s Crossing as we sat sail away, slowly sailing away into the night.

Chapter 4 - Harbour

”To perform magic is to bend the world around you after your will. While this power comes naturally for unicorns have it been sighted, on rare occasions, being performed by an earth pony or a pegasus,” I read loud for myself, my habit to trust.

The sun shone through the open window to my room, illuminated the corns of dust that danced in the gentle breeze which entered the room through the window. It brought with it the salty scent of the ocean as it gently blew around me, flipping the pages in the small book I had in front of me and breaking my concentration. I sighed and closed the small book, labeled The Beginning of Magic, and looked at the window.

I focused on the knob on the window, gripping it with my magic. I directed the power that flowed in my veins, redirected that burning chill to the top of my horn. I felt the sweat starting to break through my hide, a small trickle of it rolling down my forehead as I tried to shape the air around the knob to stabilize so I could draw it towards me. I felt how my energy slowly disappeared, and I tried to fight the strain. But it was to no use, and exhausted did I fall to the floor, unable to move at all. The gentle breeze tickled me as I looked up at the window that I had been unable to close with magic.

But the exhaustion had soon disappeared, leaving my body as it always did directly after I had tried to use magic. I hated it, unicorns was supposed to use magi. It was in our nature, it should come to us naturally to bend the world around us to our will. I could not even close a window with my magic! My cheeks heated in embarrassment, and although there where no one in the room to see me did I hide my muzzle in my hooves, shielding it from the judging rays of the sun.

Why can I not use magic like all others? How will I be able to work around this blockade? I have been here a week and still have I not received any training, only this room and this book. The thoughts spun in my head. A week, had it already been a week? I had nearly never been outside the room during that time, and I had not seen much of Sea Walker either during that time. He had told me the day we arrived in Harbour that our training would start as soon as possible. That had been before he showed me this room.

I sighed and removed my hooves from my eyes, looking over the room I had been given for my stay. It was a spacious room, a bed that was too big for me took up the space at one of the walls. A wooden desk, made of dark mahogany wood, stood flanked by two nearly empty bookcases. Four books, heavily outnumbered by scrolls, stood in the bookcases. A single, thick candle stood in a holder with a small bowl with under; wax had solidified there within after yesterday’s late reading.

I sighed. Then there were the window, still open and allowing the gentle autumn wind inside. Still open after the attempts I had done to close it with magic. I got up on my hooves, and slowly trotted over to the window, looking over the scenery below me.

I still felt unease as I watched over Harbour, the great city of the Sea Serpent tribe. That so many ponies lived at the same place was for me unimaginable. I had been housed in Sea Walkers own house the same day I had arrived at Harbour. It was a house that stood on a small hill, overlooking the city, a house that was bigger than any building I had seen before I had arrived to this city. But it was still far from the biggest house in the city. Below me was the city spreading out, as water rippling from its center, a center that was the building behind Sea Walkers house. The building was the meeting hall of the Sea Serpent council.

From my window could I see the tree stone walls that were placed around the city. The wall closest to me, the inner wall, had Sea Walker called “The Sea Serpent”, and told me that it was behind that wall that the ruling ponies of the city lived. Here stood the grandest houses, the ones that housed the members of the council and other ponies, ponies that he had called “Higher Ups”. Other than that did also the meeting hall lay inside this wall, and I was sure that a lot of other things were placed here if I just had walked outside.

But I had not, the city scared me. So many ponies in one place, so many which lived together this close to each other. And it was so big, how was I supposed to find my way around? I had not gone outside the house, nearly not even outside the room, since I had arrived here a week ago.

I carefully bit down on the rope that was connected to the window, a rope that was so that the ones without magic could close the window. Giving earth ponies, pegasi… and me a way to open and close the window, allowing or denying the outside air into the room. I slowly drew the rope towards me, and was awarded with a small clonk as the window closed shout, closing out the autumn wind. I turned away from the window, and nearly jumped out of my hide as I saw Silver Plate standing behind me. I had not heard the silvery servant enter my room and was surprised to see him.

He looked down at me, the same blank expression on his face that he had had the few times I had seen him.
“I’m sorry that I scared you, young master, but Sea Walker has requested your presence in his study,” he said with a stiff voice.

“No, you did not scare me, just surprised me that is all,” I said, trying to stop my beating heart from exiting my chest. “And why do you call me young master? Star is enough.”

“Certainly, young master,” he said not even blinking. “If you would please follow me young master?”

“I know the way, Silver, no need to lead me there. And just Star is enough.”

“I have been told to see you there, young master. Now if you please.” He raised his eyebrow questioningly.

I sighed.
“Very well, lead the way Silver.”

“Certainly, young master,” he said as he turned around.

I scowled at his back as I followed him, gently closing the door after me.

~*^*~

It did not take long before I stood in front of the heavy, dark wooden door that led to the study. Silver Plate opened up the door and looked at me.
“Now, young master, if you please. The advisor awaits you.”

“Thank you, Silver.” I said, before I passed him and walked into the study. I heard the door closing behind me as I took in the study.

The sun shone in through one of the two giant glass windows, bathing the study in bright light. The study was a larger and rather empty room. Two statues, each a representation of a sea serpent, stood directly inside the door, and on the floor was an effigy of a giant blue sea serpent surrounded by greenish waves. Around the waves stood for me unknown symbols, some of them standing alone and others formed words. A desk, made of a nearly white material that resembled wood, stood in front of one of the windows. A couple of book cases stood at one of the walls, parchments and books laying spread on it. Sea Walker stood in front of a fire place, staring into the flames that were dancing there within even though the room was warm from the autumn sun. In a corner not far from the fireplace stood a light green earth pony, not much older than me, and looked straight forward, not much differently from how Silver Plate had stood when I first had seen him. The only difference was that this earth pony had a smile on his muzzle and seemed to suppress a laughter.

Sea Walker whispered words I could not make out as I walked closer to him, the flames in the fireplace died out, died out without even leaving ember on the seemingly untouched wood that lay therein. He stood like that for a second before he raised his voice a bit.
“How have you been Star? Almost a week and I have not been able to see you, I have had too much to look over after the news that we received and what the leaders decided,” he said, his voice still low and his eyes on the now vanished flames.

“I have been fine,” I said, smiling briefly. “The scrolls you gave me have been an interesting read.”

“That is good to hear. Have you had any succeeding with your blockade?”

“No, I have not.” I said, sighing lightly as I looked away, ashamed of the thought about the window earlier.

Sea Walker turned around, smiling briefly to me.
“That is nothing to be worried about, you are here to learn your way around it, not find it directly. Your training begins now, and will continue for one year. Each morning, unless I say otherwise, will you come here and we will train until the sun stands at its highest position. After the morning training will you have the afternoon free, unless I say something else. ”

I looked surprised at him, I was not prepared for him to take up the issue directly. So I just nodded at him.

“Good, step over here.” Sea Walker instructed me. I did as I was asked, walked over to where he stood. He turned to the fireplace again, and I could hear him mumbling something. With his words came the flames back in the fireplace, licking the wood without leaving any mark. “Look into the fire, what do you see?”

I stared into the flames, my eyes following them in their strange dance. Bright blue and red flames licked the firewood without burning it.

“I see flames, dancing over the firewood. Since they aren’t burning the wood do I believe that they conjured by your magic.”

Sea Walker looked surprised at me.
“That is correct, the flames are conjured by me. It was, however, not that that was the task at hoof. Answer me Star, what is magic.”

“Magic is our ability to change the world around us by our will.” I answered, remembering what I had been reading.

“That is correct, but magic is so much more than that. The magic exists inside of us, and, as you said, do we use it to shape the world around us after our will. But how can you show your will for the magic without your imagination? How can you make your magic affect the world around you if you cannot imagine it for yourself, imagine how you want it to happen? Tell me what you see in the flames, what does your imagination see within them?”

I fixed my gaze towards the flames again, allowed my imagination running free. The flames danced without any fixed order, changing shape and speed every now and then.
“I can see a red sea serpent, dancing in blue waves. I can see a flying bird, soaring through red clouds.”

Sea Walker whispered again, words I could not make out and the flames wrinkled out, died in front of my eyes.
“Good, good. While you still have a long way to go to see beyond what your eye want you to see. Now, tell me. What do you think about Harbour?”

The change of subject surprised me, and I had to think for a second.
“It is big, bigger than I thought it could be. And a lot of ponies live at the same place, more than I thought possible.”

“The Phoenix Tribe is, and have always been, a small tribe in comparison to the rest of the tribes. The rest of the tribes have lived in cities since before the war.”

“But how do you all get food? I did not see a single field when we came into the city.”

Sea Walker looked surprised at me, before a smile split his muzzle.
“The ponies in this city do not grow their own food – instead do they trade with others. Less than a day from Harbour lies four small settlements, and around those settlements lies fields. The crops from those fields are more than enough to keep Harbour alive.”

“So a hoofful of ponies works to supply all the others? What do the ones in the city do?”

“Why do you not see for yourself?” he asked, lending in some at me. “Today’s lesson will be for you to go out and see what is happening in the city, see how the ponies here live their daily life.”

I sat down on my haunches. Me, outside in the city with all those other, for me unknown, ponies? What if I wouldn’t find my way back?

“That will not be a problem.” Sea Walker said, and I realized that I had thought loud. “Jest here will go with you and make sure that you get back here once you have learned.”

“I am?” The light green servant in the corner said with a suppressed giggle. “I mean, of course I will, advisor.” He bowed deeply but did not move from the spot.

“Good, then its settled. Star, I want you to come to me when you return from the city and let me know what you have learned. Be careful out there, it is different from what you are used to.”

I nodded slowly and could hear how Jest laughed gently behind me; although what the fun in this situation was I could not see. I turned around and eyed the earth pony.

His light green coat stood out from the wooden wall he stood against, his dark turquoise mane was well kept and shared color with his eyes. He smiled gently at me and a faint giggle escaped his muzzle, it hit me that he was almost as young as me, he could not be more than a year or two older than me.

Sea Walker had gone over to the windows and looked out over the city, leaving me more or less alone with the smiling earth pony in front of me. His smile grew even wider as he brought a hoof forward. I looked at the hoof, perplexed for a second, before I brought my own forward, gently thumping it against his. Jest laughed at this and thumped against my hoof a little bit harder, bringing forth a bump as our hooves meet. I looked at him, and returned his smile.

“I’m Jest, nice to meet ya,” he said. I jumped a little, not prepared that his voice would be as high as it was.

“I’m Star, and it is truly nice to meet you as well.”

“Shall we go then, young master?”

“Please, just Star is enough. It is bad enough that Silver Plate calls me young master.”

Jest looked perplexed for a second before his smile returned.
“Of course, as you wish. Shall we go then Star?”

I nodded and together we walked out from the study. I could swear that I felt Sea Walker’s smiling at my back.

~*^*~

“Look where you go!” The angry voice of a stallion shouted after me as he ran past me. I would have been knocked over was it not for the fast reaction of Jest. He had quickly grabbed me and forced me back from the running cart that came bouncing down the street, drawn by the gray stallion that had shouted at me.

“What was that all about?” I asked Jest, still a little shocked. We had only just walked outside the door to Sea Walkers house and I already wanted to turn back.

“I do not know how ya do where ya are from, but in Harbour are ya not meant to walk in the middle of the road, that’s for the carts and wagons. The ones who are walking without pulling anything are going at the side of the road,” he said with a smile on his lips. “He did however go awfully fast, I believe he was in a hurry with that cart. Oh look, free food!”

Without warning did he dive to the middle of the street, scooping up two apples that lay there in the middle of the road. The sudden change of subject startled me, and I took a step back from him, confused over the situation. Jest smiled at me as he brought forth his hoof and offered me one of the apples.
“Hungry?” he asked me.

I looked at the apple that was offered to me. It was nearly perfect in size, its red skin seemed to glow in the light of the sun. But still I turned down the offer, shaking my head. It had not passed a long time since I had eaten last, and I was not even hungry enough for a snack. I had barely moved my head before Jest had said something that sounded like “Then I take both, more food for me” and had swallowed both the apples without taking more than two bites in either one of them. I fell down on my haunches, surprised looking up at him as he stood there in front of me, juice from the fruit still dripping from his muzzle. How could somepony eat two apples that fast?
“Mmh, juicy,” he said as he licked the apple juice from his muzzle. He smiled at me and giggled. “What? It was gooooood apples.”

I could not help but smile at him, a laugh escaping from my muzzle. He was so different from anypony else I had met before.

“Are ya ready to go, or do you want to sit there whole day Star?” he asked me, still with a sheepish smile on his muzzle and a hoof offered to help me up.

I nodded and accepted his help, soon standing on my own legs again. It was first now that I took a look around me, looking at the unsafe street that we had entered from the safety of the house behind us.

One of the ways I knew where it went, I had travelled it one week ago when I first arrived to the city. If I was to follow that way would I get to the gate of the inner wall and then out in the rest of Harbour. I shrugged and turned around, remembering all too well the scent of ocean salt and fish that lingered in that part of the city. Go back to those streets, where the salt and fish stench were impossible to get away from, was not high on my list of things I wanted. No, my mind was on the other way. I was not entirely sure where it would lead, but I assumed it would be to the meeting hall, one of the buildings I wanted to see.

I raised my hoof, pointing towards the way I looked.
“What lies that way?” I asked Jest who had moved to stand beside me.

He followed my hoof with his eyes, but he did not answer me. Instead he kept his gaze locked at a point in the distance, and it seemed as if he’s normal smile died out. I put down my hoof again, trying to follow his gaze with my own. He looked at the end of the street, where another street crossed the street we stood on and continued to the left and right. A few ponies were trotting around, some in hurry and others taking their time in the warming autumn summer. No breeze blew here; the air that reached my room was down here blocked by the surrounding houses.

But nothing was standing where Jest eyes were locked, so I turned back to him. His eyes were still locked at the end of the street, so I poked him lightly. He jumped in surprise.
“Lays that way,” he blurted out.

“What?”

“As I said, the meeting hall lays that way.”

I looked at him, but he just smiled at me. I wondered if I had imagined that the smile had disappeared from his face, it felt as if it was a permanent part of him, in the same fashion as his cutie mark. Thinking about that, I had not seen it jet. I made a mental note to check it when I had the opportunity; I wanted to know more about this strange earth pony.

“Star?”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing, ya just… kind of did not answer me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. What did you ask?”

“Are we going, or are we just going to stay here all day?”

“Oh, yes of course.” I said, quickly looking over to the road. “I would love to see the meeting hall, would you mind showing me the way?”

“No, not at all,” he said. His smile was, and how it was possible I have no idea, even wider than it was normally. He even gave a little chuckle, finding this amusing.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, curios and a little confused.

“The advisor said that ya most likely would ask for the meeting hall.”

I still did not understand how he found that funny, but I dropped the subject with the feeling that I would not get an answer anyway.
“Shall we go then?”

“Oh, of course. Let me lead the way and let me know if ya want to see anything on the way there.”

He started to walk along the road, and I hurried up to trot beside him. The street was nearly empty, only a couple more ponies trotted here. The street was silent save for a slow, regular bang of steel against steel. No bird song sounded here, neither did the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the tree crowns that I was used to. We trotted alongside each other, I curiously looking around at everything and he seemingly trying to resist an urge to chuckle, something that he failed horribly with.

It did not take long for us to reach the big plaza in front of the meeting hall. Ponies mingled around here, some ponies had carts besides them and for some reason yelling that they had “Fine apples” or “The most beautiful set of diamonds you would ever see”. The central point of the plaza was occupied of a big statue, depicting a unicorn mare, standing on her hind legs with a staff in front of herself. Around her hooves was an enormous sea serpent circling, frozen with its jaw open wide. Tendrils of water ran down the jaw and the staff into a pound that was planted around the statue.

But the thing that startled me the most was the pony who stood in front of the statue. It was a stallion, with a coat the blue color of a winter night sky and a teal mane flowing around him. A pair of large wings, larger than any I had ever seen before, adorned his back, carefully tucked to his sides. A long horn, gleaming bright blue in the rays of the sun, was partly hidden by his mane. He seemed to examine the statue.
“Who is he?” I asked, my eyes stuck on the stallion.

“That is Auroral Light, emissary of the alicorns.” Jest answered.

The alicorn turned around and spotted me. It felt as if shards glass pressed against my mind as he looked at me with his bright blue eyes. But I could not look away from those eyes, and as he smiled gently did his eyes lost their sharpness, and instead shared the smile that was on his muzzle. A second later was he gone, disappearing in a bright flash.
“You must be Star of the Phoenix tribe.” A soft voice said behind me, making me jump high in the air. “I have waited for the day I would meet you in person.”

I turned around and looked up at the alicorn in front of me. He was huge, a lot bigger than me, even bigger than Lion Heart. I shied away from him, backing straight into Jest. The alicorn laughed softly, a rich and warm laugh.
“I’m sorry that I scared you, it was never my intention to do so. I barely wished to speak to you,” he said, lowering his head to my level and looked over me with his bright blue eyes. “I’m Auroral Light, emissary of the Alicorn tribe. It is truly a pleasure to finally meet you, Star. I have heard so much good about you.”

“Who have talked about me?” I asked before I could think.

“The world around us talks to the one who listen.” Auroral Light smiled brightly at me. “And I listen more carefully than others.”

“How do you mean?” I asked, my mind pushing away all the things that should have been asked, like why I had never heard about another alicorn than the two goddesses or what god power he had.

“The words go between ponies, they speak with each other about things that affects their life. The meeting hall has been empty since Ocean Tamer and Sea Walker travelled to the tribe assembly. Normally would they have had assembled the day after they returned, but no call have been sent out during the week since their return. Words travelled from the merchants that had been at the tribal assembly market, and it did not take long before I had figured out why the meeting here had not been. A merchant talks a lot about the things that happen around them on their travels. Soon enough a name came up from all that talking the merchant pulled. Star, a unicorn from the Phoenix tribe, had travelled together with Ocean Tamer and Sea Walker here. A unicorn, it was said, who had spoken with a zebra and even lead her to his encampment.”

“It was Seeing Eye who led me, not I who led her,” I said. “But what was it you said about…”

“Seeing Eye?” the alicorn said, surprise clear in his voice. “Is that old herbalist still alive? I thought she died years ago.”

Auroral Light looked away, a frown on his face as if he was in deep thoughts.

“What did you say about the meeting?” I asked, wanting to know more about it.

Auroral Light moved his head to look at me again, but froze halfway, his eyes at a point behind me. His eyes widen some, and he quickly jerked his eyes away back to me.
“I’m really sorry, Star. It has been a pleasure to talk with you and I’m sure I will get the chance soon again, but I really have to go now. I have an important meeting scheduled this very moment.”

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he bowed slightly for me and disappeared in a new flash. I quickly spun around and found myself looking at the fountain in the middle of the square. Or, more correctly, at the two ponies that stood in front of the fountain. One of them was Auroral Light, but the other did I not recognize. Nothing strange about that, seeing that I had only been here for a week and nearly never had walked outside my room.

The other pony was a unicorn, a coat the color of a setting sun and her mane was like sunrays. She smiled lightly at me before she turned towards Auroral Light.

Crimson red blood flowed from the shallow cut in her body, a cut that should not have caused such a high blood loss. I knelt beside her, my horn flickering with the magic I tried to push through it, my body trembling as tears started to fall from my eyes, dampening her mane. I saw through tear filled eyes how the cut started to stitch together, the blood around it coagulating slowly. She brought a hoof to my face, whispering words I could not make out, smiling weakly at me with tears in her beautiful orange eyes. The cut slowly opened again, blood starting to stream out from it. I stared in disbelief at it as she coughed weakly, moving her mouth as she spoke. I looked in her eyes against as she closed her eyelids. Eyelids that I knew would never open again. I could see myself, sitting on a throne looking up in the roof, moving my lips as if I spoke. Slowly did the me on the throne look down again, looking at something around me that I could not see. Hate and anger shone in my eyes, and a ring of fire started to emerge from my horn, followed by another, and another.

I gasped as the vision left me, my mind jerked back to the reality around me. Auroral Light and the unicorn had disappeared, and I myself lay on the bricks that the square was built with. Jest stood over me, looking concerned down at me.
“Are ya feeling alright? Ya just kinda… spaced out,” he said, a smile on his muzzle even if the concern still was in his voice.

“What happened?” I asked as I lifted my head some. I could feel a dull pain in the back of my head as I did so.

“Ya just felt into a heap when ya looked at the unicorn that Auroral talked to. I was worried for a second, I was sure that ya cried as you laid there but ya did not answer me when I talked to ya,” he said with a nervous chuckle.

I jerked my head to the fountain, but neither the unicorn nor Auroral were to be seen.
“Where did they go?” I asked, my eyes still on the fountain.

“Huh?” He looked at the fountain as well. “Sorry, but I don’t know. I had my eyes on ya and not them.”

I sighed. Why was it so important all of the sudden for me to know who the unicorn was anyway?
“Nothing you should be sorry about Jest.” I said as I got back up on my hooves.

He smiled briefly at me.
“So, where do ya want to go now?” Jest asked me, his voice back to his normal cheerfulness.

“I don’t know,” I said as I looked around at the market area. “I should see how the ponies here lived their lives, but so far is the closes connection I have done with the daily life here is when I nearly became crushed by a cart.”

“Why not go and talk with somepony who is working then?”

I thought about it. It was so simple, how were you supposed to come closer to a normal day of life without checking those who worked?
“Jest, you are a genius!”

Jest laughed.
“No, I’m far from a genius. I’m just myself, as we all should be. Follow me, I know a pony ya could talk with.”

I turned to follow, wondering what was going on inside the brain of the smiling pony in front of me.

~*^*~

The loud clanging reached my ears before we took the last turn to the street that seemed to be Jest’s goal. We had walked nearly all the way to the Sea Serpent Wall, a walk I had tried to make as much use of as possible. I had kept my eyes around me, looking at the ponies living their lives around me. But I saw nothing that would help me in my study, so I dropped the observation as soon as Jest brought up a hoof, pointing on a building close to the middle of the street.
“Here it is, Smite and Anvil’s Forge.”

I looked at the house which Jest had pointed at. It was made entirely of stone, with big openings placed regularly around the top of the house. Over the door hang a wooden sign with a painting of an anvil and a hammer on it, with text under that proudly said “Smite and Anvil’s Forge”. Jest trotted to it, and I followed him as he opened the door and trotted inside.

A wave of heat stroked against me as I trotted through the door, making my coat damp by a thin layer of sweat. The loud banging I had heard from the outside, a banging that was even louder in here, emerged from the middle of the room, where a unicorn stood at an anvil. The stallion had a light brown apron around his front and a hammer was firmly placed in his mouth, gently working the red metal on the anvil in front of him with it. Various tools hanged on the walls, and the entire smith was illuminated by the red-glowing coal in the forge at the other end. The unicorn lifted his head as we entered, looking at us with a smile on his muzzle. A faint glow surrounded the metal he had worked with as it started to flow through the air to the forge in the end of the room, landing in the forge with a low thump and making a swarm of embers raising for a second before they settled again.
“Hello there, Jest, what can I help you and your friend with today? You have not destroyed anything that needs repairing again have you?” I was surprised at how calm and low his voice was.

“No, no, nothing like that Smite,” Jest said with a smile on his lips. “I’m only here to show Star the city.”

The unicorn turned his attention to me.
“Well then, you must be Star. I’m Smite, one of two owners of Smite and Anvil’s Forge. Excuse me for a moment.” he said and floated over the nearly white metal onto the anvil. I looked with fascination as he worked with the hammer on the metal, fixating it there with his magic. Each hit with the hammer brought forth a rain of sparks and a loud clang. When the metal had returned to red were it once again engulfed in a faint aura and lifted, but this time was it lifted away from the anvil and into a bucket of water. Steam rose from the bucket with a sharp hiss, the ember from the forge creating the illusion of moments within the steam. I could see a red shape of a dragon moving towards me, opening its gape wide before disappearing together with the rest of the steam.

“But why choose this place, Jest?” Smite asked, wiping his head with the apron. “I believe that there are a lot of other places that would be more fun for a colt in his age.”

“He is apprentice under Sea Walker, and got an assignment to…” Jest began, but was soon interrupted by me.

“Why did you only use magic when you held the metal down? Why not use magic with the hammer?”

Jest closed his mouth, a muted chuckle escaping his muzzle. Smite, on the other hoof, looked nearly offended at me.
“Had Anvil not been sick would I have been using my magic for no more than to heat the forge. While magic is a great tool in itself is it not one I use. My skills comes with being close to the metal, not just watching it but feeling it as well. If my magic was to do the work then I would not feel if the iron were to falter, nor would I feel when it was perfect time to let it rest. I’m sure that it exists ways to check all these things with magic, but why replace something you enjoy with something that I consider as cheating?”

I looked dumbfound at him.
“But you are a unicorn! Magic is what you are supposed to do! Why work on the level of an earth pony when you can use your magic to do more and most likely even better things with it?” The words had left my mouth before I could take them back.

One thing I quickly became happy about was the fact that looks could not do physical harm against you. If they could then I would most likely have been lying in a bloody pile on the floor from the murdering look that Smite gave me.
“So a unicorn is only a unicorn if he can use magic, is that it? Are we superior only because we can work with magic? Are we supposed to do everything better than anypony else?” he snarled at me.

I curled together, tried to make me smaller under that look. I could feel my cheeks heating in embarrassment. I had never meant it to sound like that. I could hear him sigh before he spoke again.
“We unicorns are not superior, far from. What we gain in magic do we lose in other areas. The earth ponies are superior when it comes to their endurance and strength, the pegasi are faster than us and most importantly have the ability to fly. I got my cutie mark while working with metal decades ago, and I have worked with it in the same way since. It is a tiring job, and I’m sure that I could use magic to make it easier, but it is my job. It is something I enjoy and I would not change it for every bit in the world.”

A faint glow emitted from the bucket, soon followed by the now grey metal. It floated over to the forge, a rain of sparks escaping from the ember as the metal landed around it.
“I have to return to work, I have a lot to do today seeing that Anvil is sick. Jest, would you mind take this package to Sea Walker? He requested it to be made some days ago and I just finished before you arrived here.”

“Hu?” Jest asked, taking his eyes from the dancing flames in the forge. “Yea, I guess I can do that.”

“It’s not heavy, but it is valuable. Be careful with it.” Smite said as a small package floated into view.

The package was a small wooden box, not bigger than that it would fit in my hoof. The dark wood seemed to be a solid block with carvings around it, carvings that made me dizzy as I followed them with my eyes. I slowly rose again, my eyes on the beautiful crafted box.
“What is that?” I asked without taking my eyes away from item.

“That you will have to ask Sea Walker, I followed the instructions I were given to create it, nothing more,” he answered as he floated the box over to Jest who carefully took it and hide it in his mane.

Smite turned away from us, looking at the metal in the forge.
“Remember one thing Star. None of the races are superior to the others, we all have our flaws in comparison to the other races. We will have to work together as a single race, or none of us would survive for long.”

“I-I will remember that.” I said, as I started to walk out of the smithy, Jest close behind.

I had not walked long outside before I heard the sound of metal being hammered again, a sound that followed me a long time afterwards as well.

~*^*~

The cushion was soft beneath me, the sun’s ray that shone through the window and landed on me were warm. Sea Walker sat at the other side of the small table, pouring tea into two cops from a pot he levitated. Steam rose from the cup and the sweet aroma from it filled the room, made it smell like a flower garden. The wooden box laid on the table, its carvings seemed to glow in the red rays of the setting sun. Sea Walker had sent Jest home and I was now completely alone with him in his study. A gentle breeze brought with it some cold that chilled the warm room to a more comfortable warmth.
Sea Walker whispered low to himself, even when sitting this close could I not hear the words he said, and the teapot were gently lowered down to the table and the aura around it changed position to the teacup instead. I looked blankly at my own teacup, which just stood there and spread its exquisite aroma in the room. I started to wonder how earth ponies and pegasi drank from these cups with their ridiculously small design. I decided to try my best and took the teacup between my fronthooves, gently bringing it up to my muzzle to drink.

I could not help but missing Jest at this situation. He would have been able to show me how to drink like this, and he would most likely suppress a chuckle as he did. But it worked, and even though the position I had so sit in was awkward did I manage to take a sip. The drink was warm, and I was kind of disappointed that a drink that spread such a sweet aroma could be so bitter.

Sea Walker smiled lightly at me.
“What did you learn?” he asked as he took another sip from his cup. “How are the ponies in the city living comparing to the ones in the Phoenix Tribe?”

“The ponies here seem to have some rules to follow, like where to walk in the streets. They also seemed to be in a hurry, not taking their time to talk with the ponies around them. The ones working seemed to take pride in their work.”

Sea Walker looked out one of the windows, where the setting sun painted the world in red. He sighed some as he took another sip from the cup.
“But have you understood how the families here live their lives? Have you understood how the food gets here from the farms and what the farmers get in payment?”

I looked down at the floor, ashamed.
“No, I have not come to that understanding yet.”

Sea Walker did not say anything for a while, but I could see his eyes at me.
“Star, I did not expect you to understand everything in a single day, no one would be able to do that. You have started to understand, but you still have a long way to go before perfect understanding.”

I looked up at him, and he smiled knowingly at me.
“I believe you will do your best to learn.”

“Yea, I will do my best.” I promised as I took another sip on the tea. The hot liquid scaled my tongue, making me drop the cup I held in my fore hooves.

Luckily for me was Sea Walker reacting quickly.
“Stop,” he nearly shouted. At his word did the light around his own cup spread to my falling cup, stopping it dead in its fall. A few drips of hot tea fell on me, making me yelp as it burned my skin. The cups slowly drifted to the table, where they were gently placed. Sea Walker smiled briefly at me.
“You should be more careful, you could have scolded your entire body,” he said calmly.

I smiled apologizing at him.
“I’m sorry.”

“No harm done.”

Then it hit me.
“You have to speak while using magic.” It was not a question.

Sea Walker smiled at me.
“Yes, I do. And before you ask, it’s a side effect from the time I got rid of my own blockade. My magic will not work if I’m not to say for myself what I want it to do. Most unicorns do this mentally, but my mind is set to that it will not work should I not tell my magic what I want.”

“But you just said ‘Stop’ and still you could float it away from me without saying anything more.”

“Yes, and that I can thank my imagination for. I yelled stop, and my magic obeyed that it should stop the cup. That I could move the cup from where it floated was that I imagined that it had stopped at the wrong place and needed to be moved to stop where it should.”

“But… but that is not logic! Your magic did as it was told, and if it really did listen to you then it would have dissipated after it had stopped the cup, it had followed what you wanted it to do and nothing more!”

“The magic in itself is not what follows my orders, it’s my mind that do. It’s the same way that I was able to use a simple word as ‘float’ to first pour the tea in our cups and then lift my own cup to drink, with only saying ‘change’ in between. I imagined that the cup ‘floated’ at the wrong place and needed to be moved. My magic obeyed, because it followed what I thought.”

He sighed.
“My magic work like all other magic, as long as I visualize for myself and tell myself that what I’m doing have to do with my command. But as soon as my belief stagger, so does my spell. It have been like this since I got rid of my blockade.”

The surprise from dropping the cup had finally vanished from me, and been replaced with curiosity as I looked up at my mentor. I quickly changed my sitting position to a more comfortable and kept my eyes on him.
“How did it happen?”

“How did what happen?” he said with a knowing smile on his muzzle.

“How did you remove your blockade?”

He laughed as he smiled at me.
“It was during one of my lessons under an old mare named Flower that it happened. She had given me the task of caring about a flower, my reward would be to see it bloom. Weeks pasted without anything happening, and in the end was I more frustrated on it than I would like to admit. I shouted at it to grow, and I felt how the magic inside of me, that before only had been rushing through me, formed after my will and made the flower grow. It bloomed as a beautiful flower, and as soon as it was fully grown did my magic dissipate. The flower, which had nourished on my magic, faltered and died, but I had worked around my blockade. From that day could I use magic by talking and imagine my magic.”

“So all I have to do is to imagine and talk to myself?” I asked without believing myself.

“No, that is most likely not the way for you,” he said.

Even if I had not believed that it was that easy was it hard to hear those words. It felt as if my heart sank in my chest.

“Then what is?”

“That will you have to find yourself Star, I’m here to help you when I can. But what I know is that every time a unicorn have worked around a blockade have it been feelings around it. Flower had had a blockade a long time ago as well, and she overcame it when her grandfather died. She had been sitting and crying over his body, and her magic had listened to her heart’s desire, creating flowers all around the glade. She could only use magic that her heart wanted, and she rarely used magic at all.”

I smiled weakly at Sea Walker, a smile he returned.
“That sounds beautiful.” I said.

“It was. She showed me once, the day we said far well. She conjured a thousand flowers around us, each in a unique color and design. The most important thing she learned me is that who you are is not about what you cannot do but what you can. Even if you cannot do something that others can is that not by any mean an evidence about you being inferior to them, all do we have something inside of us that makes us differ from the rest.” he looked away, a tear in the corner of his eye. “I cannot look at a flower nowadays without remembering her and everything she taught me.”

I did not know what to say, so I just sat there, looking in another direction. I looked out one of the windows, the setting sun painting the horizon red.

“What do you think about Jest?”

I jumped at the sound of Sea Walker’s voice. I had not been prepared for it and my mind had been wandering.
“He is really nice, although a little bit… different. Not that that is a bad thing.” I hastily added.

Sea Walker smiled at me.
“I know what you mean, he is unique in more way than one. He is the only foal I know about whose father doesn’t know about his existence. He was born into a farming family, and has worked his way to where he is today. I found him on the street, and took him in my service less than a year ago. He told me his story, and I have since then taken care of him and been someone he can trust.”

“What story?” I asked, my curiosity awoken.

“That is something you should ask him about, it is not my thing to tell you. I should warn you thou, if he does not want to talk about it then you should not pressure him. When he trust you and want you to know he will tell you, that I know.”

I nodded once, understanding what he meant.

“Well then,” the unicorn said as he stood up. “I think it is time for us to end today’s lesson. I will await you tomorrow after sunrise; make sure to be here in time.”

“Yes Walker,” I said as I got up on my hooves, nearly flipping the table as I did so. I smiled at Sea Walker and said goodbye to him and then proceeded to leave the room.

My training had finally started, and I could not wait to learn more.

Chapter 5 - The Blizzard

“The blizzard has been going on for nearly two weeks now,” Iron Shield, captain of the guards that patrolled the streets of Harbour and its surrounding, said with his normal high pitched noise. “It’s harsher than any blizzard before it, and the last carts of supplies from the settlements around us couldn’t get here in time, they were as surprised by this as we were. We need to.”

Every eye in the meeting hall walked to Ocean Tamer as he, by raising a wing, firmly cut off his guard captain midsentence. The entire meeting hall grew silent, not even the crowd that had assembled around the council made a sound as their leader spoke up. “We have our magicians working around the clock to fix this situation, led by Advisor Sea Walker and Headmaster Light Touch, as I told you last week. I know, as well as you, that the situation is dire. You are not the only one who have listened to the pulse of the city these weeks, and I know as well as you that the citizen fear what will happen in the future. But you have the same orders as last week.”

I stopped listening to what was said, my eyes wandering over the assembled ponies in the meeting hall. There was a clear difference between how the Phoenix tribe and the Sea Serpent tribe where ruled, something that was easy to understand seeing the size differences between the tribes. Everypony in the Phoenix tribe could speak their mind freely directly to Flame Raiser or Crystal Fire, and if a meeting was to be held would everypony be getting a chance to get their voice heard.

That would not work in the Sea Serpent tribe. Here it was handled completely different, to work up for the sheer number of ponies in the tribe. Each city, and the small settlements surrounding them, was ruled by a council of five ponies. Two of the council members, the captain of the guards and the Headmaster of the academy, were chosen by Ocean Tamer while the other two were chosen by the ponies of the city. The exception for this was Harbour itself.

Ocean Tamer was the leader of Harbour and the council here was no more than a council existing of nine ponies. Two of them, Iron Shield and Light Touch, had been chosen by Ocean Tamer as captain of the guards and Headmaster of the academy. Then there were the three chosen by the people, and the four chosen by the other cities councils so that they could get their voices heard.

Even if the meeting hall was an impressing sight from the outside, with its grand statues and pearl white marble that shone nearly as bright as the sun, was it nothing compared to the inside. The meeting hall was built up around the Chamber, the room that hosted the meetings. There were only one public way in and out from the Chamber, and that was the hallway known as the Path.

The Path was the grand hallway that connected the entrance with the rest of the meeting hall. A sea blue carpet lay on its marble floor, statues of marble and onyx, the smallest of them in the size of a full-grown pony, stood tall along the road the carpet created. Smaller hallways lead from the Path, digging their way into other parts of the meeting hall. In the end of the Path stood two grand wooden doors, created by the same dark wood that my grandfather’s house was built with, with silver fittings around the edges and across the middle. The black and blue emblem of the Sea Serpent tribe, placed directly over the double doors to the Chamber, looked down at everypony that approached the core of the meeting hall.

The Chamber itself was a circular room. Eleven pillars, formed as great sea serpents, held up the vaulted ceiling. The top of the ceiling was painted as an ocean scenery and the pillar seemed to swim out from the scenery and dive into the floor. In the middle of the Chamber were the seats of the council, nine places around a dark wooden table, standing in front of the two seats where the leader and the advisor of the Sea Serpent tribe sat. In a half circle around the seats of the council and the leader were seats open for anypony who wished to listen to the meeting.

Those opens seats were nearly filled to the brim this early morning. The inhabitants of Harbour worried about how they would survive, worried about how the food would suffice to feed the entire city for the days, maybe weeks, it would take to get the weather situation at hoof under control.

The council shared the fears and worry that pulsated in the city, this question had been raised more than once, and every time had it received the same answer. The assurance that the magicians worked around the clock and that the orders they got on the last meeting still applied. Orders that all remaining food in the city’s hooves, food that the city council had bought up from the merchants the day they realized that the blizzard would stay longer than it usually did and that all wagons hadn’t arrived to the city, was to be handed out, under controlled forms, to each citizen in Harbour. Not even the members of the council got more foods on their tables than any of the others inhabitants, and this included Ocean Tamer himself. Each household was each week given enough food to make sure that every pony had enough to feed on until next time it was handed out.

A lot of the nobles, a name ponies with a lot of money or power had given themselves so that they could say that they were worth more than others, had raised their voices at this. Why would they, who had the money to buy the supplies, get as much on their tables as the ones with less money? It had taken Ocean Tamer three meetings, and a complete loss of temper, to convince them that the food supplies would not be sufficient should they all try to buy as much as they had done before.

“Silence!” Ocean Tamer called out, silencing everypony in the Chamber and awaking me from my thoughts. “We will not discuss this further, my will stand fast in this. The food distribution will continue as it have done until this day, and will do so until the blizzard ends, wether it ends from the use of our magic or naturally.”

“But that might take weeks, this is outrageous!” Mystique, an old unicorn who had been silent through all of the meetings, shouted out. “What will it take you to change the way this works? For two weeks have our families suffered and.”

“You have not suffered any more than the rest of Harbour, Mystique,” Ocean Tamer cut him off with a low voice. “What is it that makes you noble ponies think that you are worth more than the rest of the citizens? Is it your money? Is it your power?” he asked as he stood up from his sitting position, looking over all ponies that had assembled in the room before his gaze ended up at Mystique, nailing him in place. “Whatever it is will it not be enough. Every life in here is equally worth in my eyes, and as such will I make sure that every one of the ponies in our city got food on their tables, even if it is less than they are used to.”

“But,”

“No, no objections. This meeting has come to an end. You are all free to leave,” Ocean Tamer turned around and left without any further ceremony. Sea Walker and I lingered for a few more minutes, watching as everypony else left the building. Most of the ponies whispered with somepony else, and a few angry mutters could be heard from the ‘nobles’ as they made their way past the other ponies, seemingly in a hurry to get outside.

Sea Walker and I were the last to leave as we walked the way Ocean Tamer had left, a way that quickly ended in front of a doorway. The doorway was decorated by two sea serpents that seemed to crawl up at the sides, and the door was slightly open. We entered the room, Sea Walker walking before me and letting go of the staff he had been holding in the grasp of his magic.

I looked wide-eyed around the room. It was the first time I had been in this room, Ocean Tamers own office, the heart of the power in Harbour. A desk of dark wood stood at one of the walls, flanked by two large bookcases filled to the brim with scrolls. Ocean Tamer himself lay on one of a couple cushion piles that were laid out in front of a fireplace, his head resting on his fronthooves and his eyes staring into the empty fireplace.

"You did the right thing," Sea Walker said in a low voice. “The people of Harbour needs a.”

"How long time do you need, Walker?" the pegasus asked, interrupting the unicorn. I could clearly hear the tiredness in his voice.

"Sir, it may take days, weeks, to finish the spell. We have barely been able to fix the spell frame. Magic of this magnitude... It has never been tried before! The legend speaks about the lost powers of the Elements of Harmony and Discord, and with that power we could have stopped the blizzard a long time ago. Without such a power? It will take time."

"We don't have weeks!" Ocean Tamer raised his voice slightly as he rose from the cushions he had laid on. "We might not even have days! Mystique wants power to the nobles, a wish that would hurt the commoners, the core, of our city. And he have support," he said with a lower voice, the last sentence barely more than a whisper. “The nobles, they don’t see clearly. They see what the money can do for them, not what they can do for the entire tribe.”

"I will do everything in my power to get it finished, if I so will have every available unicorn working themselves to death," the advisors swore, his voice steady and serious.

"I don't expect any less from you, Walker. But I would like to have some unicorns left when you are done with them," Ocean Tamer said, a faint smile on his muzzle. “You are free to leave.”

Sea Walker turned around to leave the office and I turned to follow him when Ocean Tamer called out from behind me. "Wait, Star. I want to talk with you," he said. "You have been here for months now and I have only spoken to you a hoofful times."

Sea Walker seemed as surprised as I was as he turned around and looked at the tribe leader, but he quickly recovered and a smile started to spread over his muzzle. "I don’t see any problem with that. You know where to find me once you are finished. Take your time, Star, and listen closely to what Tamer has to say," he said before he turned around again and trotted out from the office.

The pegasus smiled at me as he lay down on the cushion pile again, his eyes on me. “Take a seat, Star,” he said as he motioned towards the remaining cushion piles with a hoof.

I snapped out from the surprise and quickly did as I was told to, taking a seat in one of the piles. The cushions were softer than I had expected, and I sunk down in the comfortable pile with a satisfied sigh.

“Nearly six lunar cycles have you been here now, Star. What do you think about Harbour? What have you learned?”

“Harbour is,” I stopped for a second, thinking over what to say. “A big city. There is always something to do, something to see. At first I only thought about it as chaotic mess with all ponies hurrying around have I now realized that they have a daily routine. They interact with each other in a completely different way than I was used to when I first got here. Where you at home could pretty much just ask the neighbor about an apple for your pie do you here have to buy it from a merchant, who himself bought it from a farmer, who himself pay you for the soil he have his crop on. Payment you take from all in the city, the size of the payment percentage equal for all, and use to repair the city and to make sure all are safe at both night and day. All the time using these small silver and golden objects that you call bits,” I paused to take a breath, glancing over at the pegasus.

He looked strangely at me, a smile on his muzzle.

“What did I do wrong?” I asked, shrinking some at the thought that I might have done something wrong.

“You haven’t done anything wrong,” he answered, the smile on his muzzle widening. “I’m just surprised that you have learned how our entire tribe is, if you take it down to the core, built like. How did you learn it?”

“I asked Jest about the strange object I was given by Sea Walker the second time we were out, and he told me that it was bits and how you used them. As we bought the apple I had to ask the merchant where he got it from, seeing that there existed no apple trees anywhere in the city what I had seen. He told me that he bought it from some farmers in the eastern villages. I quickly figured that you used the currency to trade, and that everypony needed it, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to buy food. That made me wonder were the guard ponies got their money from, since they didn’t create anything or traded things they had bought. So I asked Sea Walker and he said,”

“That I founded them so that they could protect the rest of the city, stop the things we call crimes. But how did you get to the point that they pay me?” he asked, one of his eyebrows raised in question.

“Well, I figured that you had to get the money from somewhere, to pay all the guards I mean, so I asked Sea Walker about it. He told me that everypony paid a twentieth of their income, regardless of status or work, no matter where they lived as long as it where in the Harbour region.”

Ocean Tamer chuckled lightly. I felt as that I had heard him chuckle before, but I could not place it. “It seems like my advisor have had a good time answering your questions, Star. But tell me, what progress have you been making with your magic use?”

“None,” I said, my ears hanging low in shame. “Sea Walker has shown me many things, like how to melt snow or how to create a globe of light at will. But even thought I know the basic of the spells I can’t use them, every time I try my power is drained and I end up in a heap, panting for air. After a while we continued to the basics of magic use instead. He says me that I have a natural ability for understanding it.”

“I’m glad that I never have had to learn something like that,” Ocean Tamer said with a shrug. “It is all fancy, and I’m sure it could come in very handy someday, but all that reading… No, I’m happy where I am, and I’m sure that your blockade will be shattered before you are to leave us,” he added with a smile.

“I guess…” I sighed.

”How do you like your time here so far then?”

“It has been a lot of studying, but also much free time that I have been spending with Jest.”

“Jest?”

“A friend, or more precisely a servant to Sea Walker,” I said, lighting up at the thought of my friend.

“Well, it’s always good to have friends. They are the ones who define us. I count many in my tribe as my friends, both among the commoners and the nobles,” the pegasus said, sharing my smile as he rose from the cushions. “It has been very pleasant to speak with you, and I truly hope that I can talk to you soon again, but for now do I have to take care of some matters of great importance.”

“Okay,” I said as I rose as well, a little surprised that the talk would end this quickly. “I thought you wanted to talk for me longer than this, did I do something wrong?”

Ocean Tamer let out a laughter, which surprised me even more. “Something wrong? The only thing you did wrong was to know everything I had thought you should know. I guess I was a little late with thinking about learning you about it was I not?” he said with a wink.

“I’m sorry,” I said, blushing slightly. “I hope you aren’t mad at me.”

Ocean Tamer looked surprised at me. “Why would I be mad at you? You have asked question, you have stilled some of your curiosity. Why would something like that make me mad? The only one I’m mad at is myself, for not asking Sea Walker how long you had come and what you had learn.”

I just stood there, not knowing what to say.

“So, go now. I believe Sea Walker is waiting on you, and I got work to do.”

“Yes, Ocean Tamer. Bye, and thanks for the talk,” I said as I turned around.

“Star,” he said before I had had the time to even take two steps.

“Yes?” I asked as I turned around.

“No need to be formal with me, Ocean or Tamer will be enough, at least when we are alone like this. I have never been found of… formalities,”

“Okay Ocean T… Ocean, I will remember that,” I said as I turned around again.

“Bye, Star,” he said as I left the room, shouting a farewell back to him.

~*^*~

I sighed and rested my head against the cushion in the wagon. The howling blizzard outside made the wood in the wagon creak alarmingly, the cold wind finding its way through the slits in the wooden sides of my conveyance. I could barely hear the talking between the two earth ponies that pulled the wagon over the blizzard, but that was enough to remind me that I travelled thanks to others.

Not that I would have had any chance against the storm without them, it was barely that they could move in the blizzard themselves, and that was when the blizzard was weakened by all the houses in the core of the city. I did not even want to picture how the blizzard hit the outer ring of the city, or even worse the small towns around it. And here I lay on a soft cushion inside a wagon that was, for the weather around me, warm, on my way towards the academy where Sea Walker and the Headmaster worked on a spell to stop the same blizzard that howled around me.

I sighed again as I burrowed my body deeper in the cushions, praying that we would arrive soon, not only so that I could get out of the wagon but so the ponies that drew it would be able to get into the warmth again. I hoped that Jest was at the academy, then I could spend some time together with him and not be in the way when the magicians worked. It was interesting to look at, but it always felt as if I was in the way.

My thoughts came to a sudden stop as the wagon did the same. I rose up and looked out at the window at the side of the wagon and realized that something was wrong. I hurried over to the other side, looking out of that window as well, but was greeted by the same sight as I had from the first.

Snow, all around me was there snow, whirling around in the raging blizzard. I could not see more than a few feet from the wagon, not that it helped seeing that the only thing I could see was the snow anyway. Another thing that I noticed was that I could not hear the sound of the ones pulling the wagon. Had they left me? Or were they still there?

“Why did we stop?” I yelled, hopping that they could hear me.

The only thing answering my call was the wind that howled around the wagon.

“Hello?” I yelled again, feeling the panic rising in my voice. Had they left me? Why would they leave me? Had something happen to them? Were we in danger?

Was I alone? What would happen to me? What had happened to them? Had anything happened to them? Why did they not answer? Was I alone? My mind circled around itself, asking the same questions over and over again. But I did not find any answers to my questions, as they whirled around inside my mind, making me panic more and more. The air in the wagon steadily grew colder and I started to breathe faster and faster, my breath visible around me. I felt to the wagons floor, feeling the cold, hard wood against my limp body. I tried to suppress the thought, started to think about something else, anything else!

The floor, the floor was good. The dark wood the wagon was created by smelled like the forest at home, remembering me of the glade and the waterfall in the late summer, remembering me of the warming sun shining high above me. I felt the warmth spreading in my body, making my head dull. Why was the air growing warmer? It shouldn’t, I could still hear the howling around me. But the warmth nudged me, wanted to get my attention. It felt good, but the sunshine made me drowsy. But that was fine, I could just lay down on the cozy grass. Yes, the grass was good. Why were my eyelids this heavy? Oh well, I could always take a nap in the green grass, with the sun above me. I just had to be careful so to not get sunburned. Slowly I drifted off to sleep, something in the back of my mind bothering me, but what could be any better than a sleep in the green, sunlit grass around me?

~*^*~

I slowly opened my eyes, blinking the sleep away from my heavy eyelids. The violet sky opened up above me, lit up but neither by the sun nor the moon or the stars. Instead it seemed to glow on its own, pulsating as pink and purple started to weave itself around the sky, lighten and darken it simultaneously. I had rolled over to my back during my sleep, but I did not lie on the grass anymore. Cold spread from my back into my body, chilled me slowly. I tried to move, but I could not move any of my limbs for more than an inch before they were stopped by… something, I was not sure what. Above me the sky started to whirl faster and faster, making me dizzy as I looked up at it. I jerked my eyes away, looking around at the place I had awoken at.

Before my eyes a giant room stretched out, continuing for what seemed like forever. Enormous, grey pillars supported the velvet violet ocean above me, whirling around themselves in ways that my eyes could not follow. I could hear laughter around me, feel hungry eyes looking at me, but nothing was to be seen. I tilted my head the other way, and the same scenery met my eyes again.

I turned around at the feeling that something crept up at me, and I could swore that I saw something in the corner of my eye, but nothing had changed in the scenery. Except that it felt like everything was closer to me than it had before.

“Hello?” I called out. Or at least I tried, no sound left my lips as I spoke. I trashed my body from side to side, desperately wanting to get away from whatever held me down and made me unable to speak. After having trying for several minutes I gave up, accepting that I could not get away. This time I knew for certain that the room had become smaller around me. I could now see how the walls had crept in on me.

The walls were completely black and seemingly devoured all light that came close to them. My head was jerked away from looking at the wall without a warning, instead my eyes were met by the violet ocean sky above me. I could not move my head at all now, it was locked in position. A soft laugh was heard behind me, different from the laughs I had heard before.

“What are you doing here, Brother?” a familiar voice called out behind me. “Poking your nose in the hornet’s nest, without knowing the consequences am I not right?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came from my lips this time either.

“As I said, Brother, you don’t know the consequences of being here.”

I felt how my body left the cold floor, and I saw from the corner of my eyes how I was engulfed in a black light. I rose towards the ceiling, but stopped as I was halfway. I slowly rotated in the air until I was eye to eye with the jet black unicorn I had seen in the camp so many months ago.

“But I have to thank you,” he said with a smile, his eyes as empty of emotions as they had been when I first met him. “For bringing the very last piece of this puzzle, making me able to finally, after all these years, release the power needed to alter the past.”

A black void opened up around his horn, engulfed all light in the room until the only thing I could see was his emotionless eyes. It seemed as if the brown eyes grew bigger and bigger, to the point where it was the only thing I could see.

“Mine… Finally is it mine! After all these years can I finally stop you! Finally!” the unicorn shouted out. ”And it’s all thanks to you, my Brother.”

It felt as if something started to pull out from me, forced up from my stomach to my mouth.

“Don’t fight it, Brother. Are you not willing to help the tribes? Are you not willing to give them true freedom?”

I tried to struggle against him, tried to keep whatever it was that made its way up my throat down there.

“Over here. I’ve found him,” a voice I could not place shouted out besides me.

“No,” the unicorn shouted out. “No, not after all I have gone through. I only need a minute! A minute!”

The spell was broken, and where I only seconds ago could see his eyes could I now see him stagger backwards with a furious look on his face.

“No,” he shouted again.

Slowly everything turned black, and the last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was his brown, empty eyes.

~*^*~

I woke up to the sound of singing around me. The hushed, wordless lullaby echoed in unison with my mind, rocking me into a state of peacefulness. I laid in something soft, with a warm blanket was wired around me. But where had I been waking up? I wished for nothing else but to be lying still in the warm blankets and listening to the beautiful lullaby. But my curiosity got the better out of me, and I slowly opened my eyes, blinking a couple of times at the bright light that greeted my gaze.

I lay in a bed in a small room, a window letting in the few rays of the sun that made its way through the snowstorm that still raged outside. A small lantern on a nightstand next to my bed lit up the room, and I found myself looking straight into it. I blinked again, and turned around in the bed. A small door stood ajar, letting in a soft light and the song I had awoken to. I could hear two muffled voices discuss, although what they said I could not make out over the singing. A mare looked into the room, and smiled at the sight of me.

“Ah, you are awake. How do you feel?” she asked with a voice full of concern.

“What happened? Where am I?” I asked as I tried to sit up.

The mare was quickly by my side, gently pushing me down in the bed again.

“You need to rest,” she said as she smiled gently at me. “You are at the Academy. Some guards found you in an abandoned wagon, and you were close to frozen solid at the time you got here. That was two days ago,”

“Two… Two days?” I asked.

”Yes, you have been here two days. Now, try to rest some, I will go after Sea Walker, he begged us to let him know as soon as you were awake,” she said. “Don’t leave the bed, your body is weak. I will have somepony get you some food,”

Two days, I thought as she left the room. What had happened? I had left the meeting hall in the wagon, and somewhere on had it stopped without a sound. The two ponies pulling it had left me, but why?

My thoughts was quickly ended by a soft cough from the doorway, were an old stallion stood with a bowl in a grip. He shared the same smile as the mare had worn earlier.

“I was told that you had awoken, and that I should bring you some soup,” he said as he entered the room and placed the bowl at my nightstand, bringing up the spoon and moving it towards my mouth. “How do you feel?”

“I’m a bit tired but,” I started, but how he had thought that I would be able to answer with the spoon with hot food in my mouth I had no idea. The soup was thick and tasted heavily of fish.

“That is good to hear, you had us all worried when you came in here. You were almost blue from the low temperature. Those guards really saved your life,” he said as he took out the spoon and filled it with more soup.

He brought the spoon to my mouth again, so I did not find it a good idea to start talking just to be interrupted. Instead I opened my mouth when he brought forward the spoon, swallowing the soup.

“You look much healthier now, young one,” the stallion said when the bowl was empty. “Getting some food in you seems to make you good,”

“Thank you,” I said. “It was a really tasty soup.”

The old stallion smiled at me as he rose, taking the now empty bowl from the nightstand. “Good to hear, youngling,” he said. “I’m going to leave you so you can get some rest.”

“Thank you,” I said as he walked out, leaving me alone.

I did not get a lot of rest though, seeing that Sea Walker soon made his way into the room. Jest followed close behind him, his muzzle lighting up in a smile as he saw me. It was first now that I realized how small the room was, with the addition of those two did the room feel crowded, it was as if there was no room left to move in.

“It’s a relief to see you awake, Star. You had us worried there for a while,” Sea Walker said as he looked at me with worry shining in his eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling fine,” I answered with a thin smile. “What happened?”

“We don’t know,” Sea Walker sighed and shook his head. “We hoped that you could cast some light over the situation. The two ponies that should take your wagon here had been knocked unconscious, and when they woke up had you already left with the wagon, now pulled by somepony else. Their quick reaction and loyalty to Ocean Tamer was most likely what saved you, as they quickly found him and he sent out search teams after you. After some hours a search party found the wagon standing in a valley, and you lay inside it as cold as death. One of the guards stayed with you, tried to keep you as warm as he could, while the other guard got medical help. You arrived here an hour later, still cold but alive, thanks to those guards.”

”I can only remember that the ones pulling the wagon were talking with each other. Then we suddenly stopped and they wouldn’t answer me when I asked them what happened. After that I can’t remember anything before now,” I said, not wanting to talk about the strange dream I had had.

“You don’t remember anything out of the ordinary? Nothing at all?”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t see anything like that, I thought it was the same ponies that pulled as always” I said, hanging my head. “Sorry,”

Sea Walker sighed. “We didn’t want to believe that anything like this would happen, not in the Sea Serpent tribe. What would have happened if we hadn’t found you? How should we explain that to the other tribes? No, we will have to assign guards to you, to make sure that something like this won’t happen again.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I kept my muzzle shut, and only nodded at his words.

“I have to return to the others, we are close to finish the spell that will end this blizzard. Jest, stay here with Star, I think he can use some company. If it is something, just tell the guards at the door. Do not leave his side,” he said as he turned towards Jest, receiving a nod and a smile from the servant. “I’m sure that Ocean Tamer will come by as soon as he can, and until then will I have to ask you to stay here Star, no matter how healthy you feel,”

I can have imagined it, but it seemed like Jest tensed when he heard the name of the tribal leader, but if it had ever been there had it melted away before Sea Walker had noticed. The unicorn left as soon as I had assured him that I would stay until Ocean Tamer had been here.

Jest took a seat on the stool that stood in the room, and we sat there in silence, a silence that was only interrupted by the lullaby that still sounded from the outside and the occasional creaks from the chair when Jest moved. The earth pony sat with his eyes on the wall, the usual smile still on his muzzle even if it seemed weaker now than it had before.

“How do you feel?” I asked him after we had been sitting there for some time. The sound of my voice must have surprised him; he nearly jumped out of the chair as his widened eyes jerked to me, the smile on his muzzle wavering for a second. He relaxed quickly, and gave me a genuine smile.

“No, it’s nothing. I’m fine,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yea, it’s just that,” he trailed of as he looked from the window where the blizzard still raged. “I was afraid of what had happened to you, we didn’t hear from you in a long time. I even asked Sea Walker about it, but he said that you would come after you had spoken with Ocean Tamer. Then, when the night arrived you were brought in here by the guards, cold and not responding. I’m just glad that you are awake, nothing else,” he smiled at me as he looked back at me. “I was just worried about my friend, that’s all.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry anymore,” I said as I returned his smile. “I’m awake and I’m feeling fine.”

“You know, Sea Walker was just as worried as I was, but he didn’t show it to you. We have been staying here since you came back, and he hasn’t slept at all during the time. He has worked day and night on that spell that is going to end the blizzard, working while others have been sleeping. I think he blames himself for what happened.”

“Why would he do that? He couldn’t stop it,”

“That doesn’t stop him from blaming himself. If the blizzard had disappeared before you were left in it, then you wouldn’t have been cooled down so much. I think that is where he blames himself, that it is still here and could damage you like that.”

“If the blizzard had disappeared then they would have found other ways to harm me,” I said, trying to not think about anything they could have done.

“Tell that to him,” Jest said with a snort. “I’m sure he would listen to you.”

I looked out the window, tried to follow the snowflakes which danced on the other side of the glass. If it were not for the speed the flakes moved in would I have believe that it was only snowing.

“How is it going for him then?” I asked without taking my eyes away from the blizzard outside.

“With the spell?”

“Yea.”

“Sea Walker says that they are close to finish it, but Light Touch seems to think otherwise. I don’t really know, I’m not as smart as you or them, and beside of that am I not a unicorn,” he answered.

I didn’t say anything. Instead I sat there in silence, my mind on the blizzard. Jest was for once silent, and the few times I glanced at him it seemed as if he was deep in thought as well. He opened his mouth as to speak a couple of time, but every time it seemed as if he changed his mind, shut it again and looked away. In the end he finally spoke up.

“There is something I want to tell you Star,” he said uncertainly. “Something that I have only shared with Sea Walker before, the words my mother said to me on her deathbed.”

I must have looked really stupid as I sat there. The knowledge that his mother was dead was new to me, I had always thought that his mother still worked on the farm Sea Walker had mentioned that Jest was born at.

“Your mother is dead?” I asked before I could stop myself. “I mean, I’m very sorry for your loss.”

Jest smiled sadly at me. “Yes, she died ten years ago. She was bitten by a snake and the swelling never disappeared. I was five years when it happened, and I don’t have many memories of her. Except one, and it is from her laying in the bed, pale as the sheets she lay on and thinner than anypony I have seen since, telling me who my father was. All those year had she known, but avoided to tell me of him or him off me,” he looked away from me, the sad smile still on his face and tears in his eyes. “Since that day have I tried to build up the courage to talk to him, but I have always failed to do so. Sea Walker took me in when I needed a work, and has tried to encourage me to talk to my father since,”

“Then who is it?” I asked. “Do you want to share it with me?”

“I do, but,” he started.

“Star! Are you alright?” Ocean Tamer shouted out as he nearly galloped into the room. “I hurried here as soon as I heard you were awake, I was really worried about you! How could this happen? Who is behind this?” he blurred out as soon as he stood still in front of the bed, the snow from the blizzard outside still thick in his coat and mane, his eyes sharing the worry, and relief, of his voice.

Jest jumped in surprise, and looked startled at the pegasus that had just entered the room. The earth pony quickly made his way out, and I don’t think that Ocean Tamer even noticed that he had ever been there.

“I’m fine, Ocean,” I said. “And as I said to Sea Walker do I not know who’s behind it. I entered the wagon, was taken out in the blizzard and left there. I passed out and woke up here, I don’t know who did, and neither do I know why,” I said. “But I’m fine, no harm done,” I added, trying to make him relax about the situation.

“No Star, it is not okay! Your security is my thing to make sure off, and then this happens? I thought I knew the ponies in my city, I have befriended with them all over the years, and then this happens? No, it is not okay. I have to talk with Iron Shield, both about getting guards to you and rotting out these… traitors!” he said as he turned around. “I will talk with you later, Star. This won’t happen again, that I will reassure.”

I did not get a word in as he stormed out, talking loudly to himself, his mane whirling and spreading droplets of water on the floor all around him. Sighing I leaned back on the pillow, not realizing I had lent forward in the first place. Sure, I had been left in the wagon to die, but it was the only thing that had happened during my stay here, and I had been alone or with Jest countless of times. No, Ocean Tamer and Sea Walker over reacted about this. I sank deeper in the bed as I remembered that there was nothing I could do to change their minds around this. Especially not seeing that I could not even use magic to help myself or do anything really.

I was still trying to figuring out how I should do about this situation when a smiling Jest came back, carrying two big pastries and a bowl of soup. He gently placed the bowl in my fore hooves. “You should try and eat some,” he said as he placed the spoon in the bowl.

“But I just ate,” I said in return.

A statement that was negated by the loud grumbling that emitted from my stomach. How long was it since I had last ate?

“Sounds to me that you haven’t eaten in a long time,” Jest said with a chuckle. “Now, hurry up and eat, I want to eat this delicious pastry,”

He looked down at the pastries he held in his hooves, his eyes shining as he licked his muzzle. “The delicious, delicious pastry,” he nearly whispered to himself.

“You know, you can eat it if you want,” I said as I stiffened a laugh. “I don’t mind,”

“But what kind of friend would I be if I did that?” he asked without taking his eyes from the pastry, once again liking his muzzle. “I can’t just eat this tasty, delicious treat while you’re having soup, not when I brought a pastry for you as well!” He jerked away his eyes from the object of his admiration. “No, I will wait until you are finished. Besides, I ate one on the way up,”

I laughed as I brought the first spoon of soup to my muzzle. The soup was warm, and tasted of fish and salt. I did not mind, I was hungrier than I thought I was, as soon as I had swallowed the first spoon did my stomach growl for more. But so did my mind, I had had a though in my mind since he had entered the room. A thought I now ventilated.

“You started to tell me about your father before,” I started carefully, bringing a new spoon to my mouth, observing the earth pony as I did.

Jest stiffened, but did not move a muscle. I swallowed the soup and lowered the spoon to take more.

“I did, didn’t I?” Jest asked with a nervous chuckle.

“Do you still want to speak about it?” I asked before I took a new mouthful.

“I do its just,” he started before he looked down, seemingly uncertain how to continue.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t feel like it. I’m your friend, and you can tell me when you feel that you are ready,”

He stayed silent, so I continued eating. As I put away the bowl on the nightstand he spoke up.

“I want to tell you Star, but I’m not sure that you would believe me even if I did.”

“You don’t have to worry about that Jest, I will believe you,” I assured him.

He looked up at me, a smile on his face. “I told you that my mother told me the name of my father on her deathbed. The name she uttered was Ocean Tamer,” he said as he looked at me. “You must believe I lie,” he added as he looked down, the smile disappearing from his muzzle. “Sea Walker did as well at first. I don’t know what made him change his mind,”

I shook my head. I knew that I had heard Ocean Tamer chuckle before. “I know what made him change his mind. It’s the same thing that made me believe you directly. I just couldn’t understand that I didn’t make the connection directly,” I said.

He looked up at me, the sadness disappearing from his eyes, replaced with confusion. “Connect what? I don’t understand,” he said.

“Connect you with Ocean Tamer. You have the exact same chuckle! I thought I recognized his way to chuckle as I spooked to him after the meeting, but I couldn’t remember from where. But now it hit me, I had heard you made the exact same sound so many times before!”

“So you believe me?” he asked, his muzzle splitting in a grin.

“Of course I do. You are my friend, I would believe you anyway,” I assured him. “But what are you going to do now? Will you speak with him?”

“I-I don’t know. I want to, but what if he doesn’t believe me? What if he pushes me away?” Jest said, his smile faltering slightly. “What should I do then?”

“I don’t think you will have to worry about that,” I said. “I believe that Ocean Tamer will embrace you as his son if you tell him, especially if both I and Sea Walker is there as well, backing you up.”

“You think?” Jest shone up even more as he asked me that simple question.

“I don’t think, I know,” I assured him. “Now, how about you pass me one of those pastries? They really do look delicious!”

“Of course,” he said as he smilingly gave me one of the pastries before he dove down in his own.

I could not contain my laughter at the sight of him with cream all over his muzzle, and it did not take long before he had joined in with his own laughter, filling the room with the sound.

And Jest was right. When I finally stopped laughing enough to eat I noticed how delicious the pastry was, it tasted like strawberries and pears. I had no idea how they were able to get the fruits here during a blizzard, but even if it piqued my interests did I not linger in that thought for long. Instead I enjoyed the company, and the pastry, while the blizzard raged outside my window.

~*^*~

I woke up the next morning feeling stronger than I had the day before. Jest had stayed with me the rest of the day, just been there should I need anything. Walker had come by in the evening, checking in on me and, after reassuring that I was still alive, telling me that two guards had been positioned outside the door. I had raised my voice in protests, saying that it was not needed, nearly telling him that I did not want them. But he had not been listening. Instead he had placed the guards outside my room anyway, telling me that I was not to leave the room without them. I could hear them talk with each other from the other side of the door as I yawningly stretched myself awake.

The blizzard still whirled outside the window, denying most of the suns light to reach the room. A plate stood next to my bed, the food on its spreading its aroma in the room. My stomach quickly persuaded me to eat, and I dove into the food. It did not take long before I had finished the breakfast.

Spending a day in the bed was not something I wanted to do, so I decided to get up. As soon as I had finished the food I released myself from the grip of the quilt and rose from the bed, firmly planting my hooves on the ground. I wobbled slightly by the sudden dizziness that took a hold over me, and barely caught myself before I fell over. A sigh escaped my muzzle as I leant against the bed, waiting the dizziness out. Luckily it did not take long time before the dizziness disappeared and I could move freely again. I turned my step towards the door and whatever lay on the other side.

A bright hallway opened up at the other side of the door, a few ponies wandering through the doors leading from the hallway. Two ponies stood guard at the door, one of them looking back at me with a smile as I opened the door.

“Good morning, Star,” the stallion said.

“Morning,” I said as I looked over the two guards. “So… you are just supposed to follow me around all day?”

“And keep you from harm’s way,” the other stallion said in a dark tone. “That means that we don’t want you to run away from us, understood?” he snarled as he lowered his head, fixating me with a purple eye.

Surprised I took a step back.
“Y-Yes,” I said, looking wide eyed at the stallion.

“Coins,” the first stallion said with a soft voice. “You are scaring the dear. I’m sure he will be a nice colt and not try to get away, it is for his own good after all.”

The purple eye softened up and the snarl disappeared from Coins muzzle. “Sorry, kid. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said as he took his gaze from me. “Don’t mind us. We will only be here to follow you without interfering more than should you need it. I’m Two Coins and this here,” he said and pointed at the other stallion with his hoof. “Is Precious.”

Precious bowed slightly, a smile on his muzzle. “I’m happy that you finally awoke. You were as cold as ice when we found you.”

“You are the ones who found me then? I owe you my life!”

“Oh no, Coins was the one who found you. I was the one who kept you warm while he found somepony who could help us. You owe us nothing, Star. We only did our duty as guards, protecting the ones in need,” Precious stated, raising from the bow and bringing one of his legs to his chest. “Protect the ones weaker than you from harm’s way,” he added with a smile.

Coins brought a hoof to his head, muttering something I could not hear. “As Precious here said, you have nothing to thank us for. It’s our job to keep the inhabitants of Harbour safe and sound, no matter what,” he said with a smile.

“Thanks,” I said. “For saving my life.”

They smiled at me. “You’re welcome,” they said in union.

“I guess you want to see the advisor I guess?” Precious said.

“Yes, but I don’t know where he is.”

“He is in the great hall of the academy, overlooking the progress of that spell they created,” Coins said. “It’s not far from here, if you would like to go there.”

I nodded. “I would like that.”

“Follow me then,” Precious said as he began to walk. “I will lead you there.”

I could hear Coins snicker behind me as I followed Precious.

~*^*~

“It’s almost as if this blizzard is created by Windigoes,” Light Touch said as I entered the room, Coins and Precious a step behind me.

Light Touch, the Headmaster of the academy, was an indigo unicorn with a blue mane. Sea Walker stood beside the Headmaster, the two unicorns standing on the balcony overlooking the room below them. The balcony stretched all the way around the room, a door at each side leading to other parts of the academy. A broad, decorated stair in front of each door connected the balcony with the lower part of the room. The only thing I could see from the lower part of the room was the pillar, filled with curves, inscriptions and emblems, which held up the arched ceiling with a night sky scenery. A few ponies walked around the balcony, keeping a keen eye on the shadows around them, others walked to or from the room, often carrying small objects with them.

“Windigoes haven’t been seen since the war. The hatred in the world is not strong enough for them to feed on, not to create a blizzard this powerful. No, this is,” Sea Walker turned around and stoped talking as he saw me. “Give me a minute, Light. It seems that Star is awake,” Sea Walker said as he turned his attention towards me. “Good morning, Star.” He looked like he had not slept for days, but the tiredness under his eyes was not heard in his voice.

“Good morning Walker, good morning Light Touch,” I said cheerfully.

“That would be Headmaster Light Touch for you, young one,” Light Touch snarled at me through gritted teeth. He looked down at me over his glasses with a frown on his muzzle, as if I was a student that had disappointed him.

I took a step back from the surprise of the sudden hostility from the unicorn.
“Y-Yes Headmaster Light Touch,” I stuttered out.

He nodded at me before he returned his gaze to Sea Walker. “I will talk with you later, Walker – when we can have a more… private discussion.” He did not wait for an answer, but turned away and trotted down the stairs.

“As you wish, Light,” Sea Walker said to the unicorns back before he turned to me. “Don’t mind Headmaster Light Touch. He is just a little cranky that you are not one of his students. He has been over both me and Tamer about it since you arrived here. He believes that you should have an academic education and doesn’t understand that we don’t have that time.” The light blue unicorn sighed. “I believe that he blames you for not begging to be in the famous Sea Serpent Academy,” he said as he rolled his eyes.

“What is the academy anyway?” I asked, stepping to the top of the stair to overlook the room below.

Unicorns milled around below, carefully moving around a circle that was marked out with blue lines on the stone floor. The pillar stood tall in the middle of the circle, nine curved lines connecting the two. A circle was marked out at every place that a line met the bigger circle, and unicorns placed out two braziers and a swallow bowl at each of these smaller circles. Light Touch stood at the side, talking with three nervous looking unicorns.

“The Sea Serpent Academy is a place where, mostly, unicorns can come to study the works of others. It is also a place where the members can come and discuss magic theory or experiments,” Sea Walker said as he walked up behind me. “It is a gathering place for ponies who want to acquire knowledge or learn others what they know themselves. This room,” he said and motioned with a hoof to the room before us. “Is also the room we use during the rare occasions we need the power of the pillar.”

“What is it with the pillar?” I asked my eyes following named object, its curved lines, inscriptions and emblems.

“This pillar is a pillar from a lost time, ancient already at the time of the Sundering. We got no knowledge about how it once was created, and neither do we know its true purpose. This room is the true core of the academy, and it is around this very pillar that the academy was built. In the beginning built to find out the purpose of the pillar, but that purpose changed after a series of accidents. Today the room’s purpose is to make sure that nopony can reach the pillar without permission, make sure that no accidents occur.”

“But if it might be dangerous, why would you use it?”

“The only time it might be dangerous is when you try something you don’t know how it work. Before the accidents we found out a couple of things about this pillar. Most important of these founds was that it work as a magical amplifier, powerful enough to spread our magic over a vast area. The pillar is the keystone for use to end this blizzard, without it we wouldn’t reach our entire area. We would end it here but not at other places where it is needed.”

I looked in awe at the pillar. It looked ordinary to me was it not for its size and the sheer numbers of carvings that adorned it. Every line on the pillar were easy to make out even from this distance, swirling around each other, creating a scenery of forests and waterfalls, mountains and lakes, and at the same time creating runes and symbols. I could quickly make out some of the runes, runes for freedom and rebirth, fire and ash, power and control.

“And you arrived just in time, Star. I was just about to send after you,” Sea Walker said as he walked to stand beside me. “It was easier than I thought to finish the spell once the spell frame was finished, and what you see now is the finishing touches before we are going to use it.” He lowered his head to me. “Normally are only the ones involved in the ritual allowed in here when the obelisk is used. We will, however, make an exception for you.”

My face lit up at this. “You have, you will?” I said happily. “But, Jest said that Light Touch… Headmaster Light Touch didn’t think that it would be finished soon,” I added quietly.

The light blue unicorn laughed softly. “Don’t you worry about that, the spell is finished. Light Touch has agreed with me that it is as prepared as it can be, and that it will be performed today. However, he is not happy that you are attending, not even as audience. He worries that it might be dangerous for you.”

“Then, maybe I shouldn’t attend,” I said, my ears slopping. “I mean, if the Headmaster doesn’t want me here…”

“Nonsense, you will attend. It is one thing reading about a spell performed by more than one unicorn and something entirely different to see it. Come. Let me show you where you shall stand during the ritual.” He started to walk on the balcony, and I followed close behind me. I could hear how Precious and Two Coins followed me, and when I turned around to look could I see them smile at me.

He stopped opposite where we had started. In front of the door was two circles lined out as the ones around the obelisk, connected to each other with a thin line. “Here you will stand, protected by a protective spell casted by the unicorn in the other circle. You should be able to see everything from here,” he said, smiling at me. “The doors will be sealed during the duration of the spell.”

“Will you lead the ritual?” I asked as I looked out over the lower floor again.

Sea Walker smiled sadly at me. “No, I will not be a part of the ritual at all. That my blockade will make sure of. I will stand like you, protected by another, to observe the ritual and interfere should the situation get out of hoof, nothing more.”

“Oh.”

“I will have to go and speak with Headmaster Light Touch, see what it was he wanted. Stay in this room, Star, but do not disturb anypony,” he said before he turned his gaze to my two guards. “Precious and Coins, stay with him until the ritual start and then go and wait outside.”

The two guards and I nodded at him as he turned around and walked down the stairs, making his way to Light Touch. I sat down on my haunches and looked on the unicorns below as they finished the last preparations. It was first now I noticed that on this side, close to the pillar, a bigger circle was marked out. This circle was connected directly with the obelisk, and I could see the runes for control and flow being lined out inside of it. Neither brazier nor bowl stood in that circle. The unicorns took a last check on everything, and seemed happy with the result. Twelve of the unicorns stayed in the room, one which walked up to me and one who walked up the staircase to the east, while the other nine left through the doors.

The mare that walked towards me had a beige coat with a green colored mane, and it felt as if her green eyes bore into my skull. She stopped in front of me, and took her eyes away from me as she spoke up to the guards. “Dismissed,” she said with fire in her voice before she once again turned her eyes to me. “I have been ordered by the Advisor to make sure that you are safe during the ritual. Do you know how a protection-circle works?” She sounded irritated.

“A protection-circle works in various ways, depending on which type it is. A circle like this, created through magical means, is used as a spell frame. The user allows the magic to run through the spell frame instead of bending it after his or her will, making the magic implanted in the runes form the users magic instead, this leads to,”

The mare groaned. “I asked if you knew how a protection-circle works, I did not tell you to dissemble it and explain every part of it.” She snapped her head up. “Are you two still here? Did I not say that you were dismissed?” she snarled at Precious and Two Coin.

“The advisors order, Scutum,” Coins said flatly. “We are not to leave Star’s side before the ritual starts.” Precious just nodded in agreement and winked at me.

I smiled at him, a smile that quickly died as the mare averted her gaze to me again. “Listen now, Star. You are going to stand completely still, like a good colt would, inside of your shield during the entire ritual. Understood?”

“Yes,” I said, meeting her gaze.

“Good,” she said, smiling at me. “Then you can take your position. I’m sure that Headmaster Light Torch will be here any minute, and he is not found of waiting.

I quickly nodded at her and walked over to the spell circle, sitting down on my haunches in the middle of it with my eyes on the floor below me. Scutum carefully stepped around the circles, looking over the runes and channeled small flows of magic into them before she seemed satisfied with both of them and took her place in the other circle.

The nine ponies standing around the spell-circle on the ground quickly took their places as the Headmaster and Advisor entered the room. Light Touch slowly trotted around the circle, stopping at each of the unicorns that would be part of the ritual and talked briefly with them as well as checking to see that every rune was in order. He took his place in the big circle as soon as he was satisfied, shooting a glare at both me and Sea Walker as he did so.

I looked over to Sea Walker, who had taken his place at the top of the east stairs. He smiled briefly at me before his eyes returned to the Headmaster.

“Honored members of the Sea Serpent Academy, I welcome you,” Light Touch started to speak, his voice clear even up to me. “For months we have prepared for this, and the day has finally arrived. They day when we end this blizzard and allow every pony in our tribe to return to their daily life, without having to fear if it is safe to go outside or if the food will be sufficient. Are you all ready? Once we being there will be no turning back.”

His words were followed by a strong “Yes” from the assembled unicorns, and I could see how the horns of the unicorns standing in the circle started too lit up. For a second something blocked my vision as Scutum activated the shield around me, but the solid shield soon cleared, making me able to see the circle once again. Around each unicorn participating in the ritual a shield had been raised. The shields cleared before my eyes until each unicorn became visible again save for a faint shimmering in the air around each and one of them. The four entrance doors to the room slammed shut, and the ritual started.

The entire circle started to glow, faintly blue at first but soon stronger and stronger, until the point where the entire room was illuminated by a light blue light, nearly blinding me before it faltered to a darker blue color. Slowly the light started to crawl from the circle towards the pillar through the lines that connected the two. It did not take long before all the lines to the pillar had connected. Save for one, the circle around Light Touch. He stood with his back at me, slowly turning his head from side to side as if to determine if every circle was linked to the pillar. Slowly he nodded, his horn starting to glow.

And with his horn did the circle around him begin to glow as well. But the circle did not glow blue. Instead it glowed red, and it took only a mere second before the line had been lit up and connected with the pillar. I looked in fascination as a red line seemed to race up to the top of the pillar and spreading over the arched ceiling above, before it changed color to blue and raced down the pillar again, changing the line and circle to a blue color as well. I could feel a cold wind hit me hard, snow started to whirl around me, and as I looked up at the ceiling could I see that it had disappeared, instead allowing the blizzard entrance to this room. Some of the braziers in the circles were extinguished by the sudden wind, the ponies in those circles looking around panicked. “Stay calm,” Sea Walker ordered, and a mere second later the brazier sprung to life again. “You have nothing to fear.”

The magic was so thick that I could practically feel it against my coat, each hair on my body stood on end. I could hear music play around me, slow notes that drifted through the air. My own body vibrated in pace with the music without missing a note.

The ten blue lines started to connect to the line that shot out from Light Touch’s circle, linking every circle with him. Slowly it crawled upwards, following the curved lines in the pillar. A few runes started to glow bright blue as the line passed them, for each rune connected a new note joined in the rest of the music. I could see how a shield spread out from the pillar, spanning wall to wall and preventing the snow or the wind to get to us, the magic was now so thick that I should not be able to breath. More and more of the runes started to glow, until the blue line reached the top of the pillar. I watched in awe as the glowing runes seemed to free themselves from their bindings, dancing around the pillar, glowing stronger and stronger for each second. They joined each other, linked themselves together in a long chain that started to whirl faster and faster around the pillar.

Then they suddenly stopped, together with the music, and lost their color, became as white as the pillar they just had been connected to. The entire pillar started to glow, the line that had been connecting the circle with the pillar turning white and slowly started to creep back towards the bottom, the runes following it, starting to spin around the pillar again as it did so. The music started as soon as the runes started to move again. When they reached the bottom of the pillar they spun around it faster than I could follow, the chain of runes becoming a blur, the music they emitted threating to deafening me. The pillar started to pulsate, like a giant pumping heart. The runes floated upwards, still spinning, until they reached the top of the pillar once again, now nothing more than a single streak of white hanging like a halo over the pillar, a halo that slowly started to expand, growing wider and wider until it was too big for me to see from my place.

A thick blue line shot up in the sky from the pillar’s peak, piercing the clouds above. The clouds started to whirl downwards around the line, as if they were sucked in by it. But something felt wrong, the music missed notes and some of the runes seemed to falter. The lines that connected the circles with the pillars seemed to be erased, the circle’s glow started to fade. Many of the unicorns in the circle started to panic, changed the form of their magic to strengthen the protective circles around themselves instead of trying to power the circle. One by one the runes faded away completely, the notes they had played dying out until the music had completely disappeared.

It was then I heard it inside of me. The music still played inside of me, without missing a note, not once playing wrong. I could feel the raging torment burn my veins with its cold, but the strain that normally was there had disappeared. My senses were more delicate than ever before, the time around me stopped down to a near halt. I could see the panic rising in the eyes of a unicorn in the circle, could feel the air grow colder around me, could hear the heavy panting from Scutum behind me as she tried to keep the shield around both me and herself up, could taste the crisp snow in the air, smell it as I took a deep breath. I was alive, more alive than I had ever been. My magic, the burning liquid of pure ice, floated in my veins, enhanced my feelings.

And for the first time in my life I used magic without any restriction. I connected myself directly with the pillar, the pure white light from my horn piercing the protective shield around me and linking me with the pillar, shattering the control that the circle had had over it. I started to hum on the notes that I had heard before, and the pillar started to hum with me as I rose from the floor. I could feel how it vibrated in beat with our melody, each of the runes starting to glow again. The runes floated up and re-created the halo, slowly spreading out over the sky once again. But this time I was with it, I could feel it. I could sense every part of the halo, could feel the cold droplets that touched it as it pushed the clouds towards the center over the pillar. I could feel how the sun started to shine on the outer parts of the halo. I could feel how the clouds were sucked into the pillar.

And then, it was over, every cloud in the sky had been drawn into the pillar. The melody slowly died out as I dropped to the ground, the runes floating back to their place in the pillars, the light of them slowly fading away. My hooves softly connected to the ground again, the raging torment still surging through my veins, burning it with its ice. I raised my head upwards, slowly opening my eyelids. The sun greeted me from a cloudless sky, warming my body slightly as the ceiling started to manifest again over my head. I averted my gaze towards the floor, and was met by unicorns wide eyed staring at me in disbelief. The magic was growing weaker inside of me, but I did not want to let it go, did not want to release it now when I finally had been able to grasp it and hold it without losing all my power doing so. For a minute I kept the hold of it, feeling the sweetness of it against my taste buds as it warmed me and cooled me down at the same time, but in the end I had to let it go. Slowly I released it, felt how it faded away to the back of my mind. But this time nothing was in the way. I could still see the light of it and feel its warmth inside of my mind. I allowed a mental hoof to slide over the surface of the thin layer that separated me with my magic, realizing that I would be able to reach it again if I wanted to.

In the same moment as the exhaustion took its hold over me I could hear how the door behind me slammed open. My vision blurred and the world around me fading away, and the last thing I could hear before everything turned black was Sea Walker calling out my name and Precious yelling “Catch him” from behind me.

Author's note

Author’s notes

Firstly a mild warning towards you that read a story just for the tags and lay it away when there is tags that you do not like; remove this from your read list directly. I have only the basics on the story planned; I know where I want and some of the things that happens on the way. Therefore might I add some tags on the way, but each of them will be explained in this document.

Secondly a quick note from me. I love to write, I do it to awake emotions and to tell my story. If you are that kind of reader that I am and love to overanalyze, but hate to wait until next chapter with getting your guesses answered feel free to contact me, I will answer your questions and it will encourage me to write when I see that people like it.

Information - Start here new readers

12/5/2012 - 18.00 GMT +1

Faindragon here.

Firstly, I want to say sorry for not updating for some time. The reason for this is simple. Writing chapter 5 (which I posted) and now chapter 6 (soon enough finished) made me realize two things.

I need to rewrite some earlier parts, mainly during chapter 3.
I need to get a proofreader/editor, to help me out with the grammar. After all, I want you to be able to read it without having to find a grammatical mistake every second sentence.

Said and done, I have now found two(+some that helped me with the first chapter) persons who have been willing to dive down into the hell that is my grammar, and they are working to nestle it up.

So far is the first chapter finished (will soon be re-uploaded) and the second chapter is undergoing some heavy fire to get out as much as possible.

NOTE!

Don't continue reading here if you haven't started yet.

The only thing so far that really would need to be reread is the story telling in chapter two. Everything else is more or less the same at this point of time.

I will update this post if more happens, and I will remove this and post the next chapter as soon as it is all worked out.