Aline’s history

Aline stopped talking for a while. Twinkle Star noticed she was staring in the west. The sun had almost set now. Even though Twinkle Star liked watching at sunsets, there was something eerie here. There were still no stars in the sky, it was just… dark, as if there was a huge shadow falling over the plains. It made the memories of the horrible things that had happened here almost solid. Somehow she felt these words were something she had heard before, but she couldn’t really figure out where. It probably is a very long time ago since I have heard them, she thought. Somewhere…   “We never found out what happened to the other scout.” Aline suddenly continued, “The scout that had returned never told us. He died, a few months after he had returned. They said he got some other disease, but I don’t really buy that.” Twinkle Star looked at Aline. Why was she actually telling her all this? Of course she didn’t mind, on the contrary, but it was weird… why was this girl telling her all this personal stuff?  “Do you guys have any idea what the prophecy means then? Any idea if it is true?” Twinkle Star asked. “No. We don’t want to go back to there. They say those lands are cursed now. Not many come out of there alive. I don’t know any who did, anyway. And besides… I don’t believe the prophecy anyway.” Of course you didn’t, Twinkle Star thought, I figured that much. “Why don’t you?” she asked. “Because it’s weird, that scout was crazy, he was probably making it up. Didn’t you hear it? It doesn’t make sense, no sense at all. Besides, what is there to go back to. It is destroyed, gone, and no one has survived. I was only a little girl when this all happened and I’ve never been there, but I never missed it, maybe it shouldn’t come back.” Aline said with a harsh voice. Why was she being so touchy about it? If she really didn’t care… “Maybe that is because you don’t know what it was like. You never saw it, of course you don’t miss it.” Aline looked at Twinkle Star. “Have you been there, then?” Twinkle Star smiled. “I was born there, Aline. And I want to go back now. I have to.” Twinkle star noticed Aline was quite a bit shocked by this news. Of course, most people were, if she told them. Not that she told a lot of people who she really was or where she really came from, but she knew why she was telling this to Aline. There was no mistake about it… “B… born there? You mean… you mean you survived? There are actually survivors?” “Yes. More than me. Maybe comparing  But that’s not the point now, Aline. I have to get back there. There is something there that I am looking for.” Aline looked puzzled for a while, and then said: “Then come with me.” “What?” said Twinkle Star confused. Go where?“Come with me, to my parents. They can tell you more about it then I can… those lands. They didn’t tell me much about it, but I know they do know more.” Twinkle Star smiled. “Thanks, Aline.” Aline sat down on a rock. “I guess I now understand why these plains attract you so much. After all you were born there, on that horizon. It is your home. But it’s just…” Aline fell silent and stared into the distance. “Just what?” “Than what is attracting me so much to them?” Twinkle Star smiled. She had been expecting this question for a while. She had noticed from the beginning. “I think I know the answer to that, Aline, but it is not up to me to tell you that. Why don’t we go and talk to your parents… I m sure they are willing to tell you the truth.”

“I’m home mom, dad!” Aline yelled. “Welcome home honey! We’re in the kitchen!” A woman’s voice yelled back to her from somewhere in the house. Twinkle Star followed Aline through the house, from the hall that was behind the store, into the living room. She had accepted Aline’s invitation to come over to her house and talk with her parents, as they knew a lot more about the Friendship Lands then Aline did, or so she said, but Twinkle Star didn’t tell Aline there was another reason she wanted to meet her parents. Twinkle Star had noticed the second she saw Aline, but she hadn’t told her what she knew. It was not up to her to tell Aline this… and she wanted to know why her parents had never told her the truth.

The village turned out to be quite intresting, if the you knew the way, that is. Aline had taken her off the main road through some little alleys which had all kinds of weird stores and inns. Some of the little inns looked a bit dark and scary to Twinkle Star and Aline had warned her never to visit those inns, as it was said that some unreliable ponies came there, ponies with no good in mind, ponies you couldn’t trust. Twinkle Star hadn’t needed Aline’s warning for that, though, as this was obvious to her, too. But there had been some nice, warm looking inns too, and also some nice shops (They had in fact stopped at a closed hair-fashion store for fifteen minutes as Aline wanted to show Twinkle Star all the cool hair accessories they had for sale over there, and Aline couldn’t stop telling how much she could do with Twinkle Star’s hair, because it was so long and soft and pretty and shiny and Twinkle Star didn’t knew what else) and some very cute little houses. Almost at the end of the village they had come to a little vegetables store, the little store of Aline’s parents. Twinkle Star couldn’t help but wonder where on earth they got vegetables from, as there was no good ground anywhere close to this little village. 

Aline walked into a door on the other side of the living room, and Twinkle Star figured it was the door to the kitchen. It was a pretty big house as far as Twinkle star could see, even though you couldn’t clearly see it from the outside. It was a nice living room, with walls painted in white, and all the furniture appeared to be either red or green. Twinkle Star recognised those colours… She had seen this combination before. There really was no mistake about it.  “Hi mom! I eh.. I brought a guest, if it’s ok.” She heard Aline say. “Sure honey! It’s good you finally brought someone home, you never do. Who’s your friend?” An older voice answered. Aline came out of the kitchen again and an older pony was following her. She looked like Aline, she had the same mane colour but she had tied it together with a hair clip, and the older pony’s body colour was more purple instead of pink. She was wearing the same pendant Aline, it was even the same colour of light blue.

As soon as the older pony saw Twinkle Star, she froze. For a few moments she was just staring at Twinkle Star without moving, without saying anything, which got Aline puzzled. “Mom? This is Twinkle Star… eh, mom? Are you ok?” Aline’s mother kept staring at Twinkle Star, ignoring her daughter.  “This… no, this cannot be… you… Honey! Come down here!” Aline’s mother yelled. Twinkle Star heard some noises and not long after that another pony entered the room through the kitchen door. A man this time, who was also purple, but a lighter shade than his wife, but his hair was dark pink instead of yellow and it was much shorter than Aline’s or her mothers. He was wearing the same butterfly pendant as his wife and Aline, but his was dark blue instead of light blue. Just as I thought, Twinkle Star thought, I knew it…

When he saw Twinkle Star he reacted almost the same way as his wife; he stopped walking and couldn’t move for a while, he kept staring at Twinkle Star. Twinkle Star was a little embarrassed by all this; She had somehow expected they would react like this, but she didn’t like it when ponies treated her this way; she wasn’t what they thought she was… All they could see was a shadow of the past. This was exactly the reason why she usually didn’t gave her real name or identity, but even if she had given a fake name she knew these ponies wouldn’t have believed her anyway.

Then the male pony bowed on his knees. “My lady… Excuse me my behaviour, but this is hard for me to believe… I am so happy and relieved to see you are alive…” Twinkle Star smiled, while she noticed Aline was becoming more confused every second. “Please, don’t do that. I am just as happy to find other survivors.” Twinkle Star said to Aline’s father. “Hey! Could somebody tell me what is going on here?” Aline asked, raising her voice. She was obviously very confused with the reaction of her parents and Twinkle Star’s reaction. “Aline! Do not talk like that in the presence of the princess!” Her mother snapped at her. “Princess? I… I don’t understand… Mom, Twinkle Star, what on earth…” Aline didn’t know where to look or what to do, Twinkle Star noticed. Twinkle Star didn’t like the way her parents threatened Aline. How was Aline to know Twinkle Star was a princess, if her parents had ignored her the truth for so long? And why had they ignored her the truth for so long anyway? She gave Aline a feint smile. “Don’t worry Aline… But I think your parents owe you an explanation or two… don’t you think so, ma’m, sir?” Aline’s mother looked from Twinkle Star to her husband and back. “Don’t you think it is time you tell your daughter the truth?” Twinkle Star asked. It came out more annoyed than she meant to, but she got a little annoyed with these ponies. They treated her as if she was some kind of goddess, well, then they should do as she said. She wanted the truth out of these ponies. Not so much for Aline’s sake, maybe, but more for her own. She wanted to know if what she suspected was true. “I…, yes, I… Aline honey… I am so sorry… please, listen to what I have to say, before you reply to me… Please understand I hid this from you for your own good…” Aline nodded. Twinkle Star noticed Aline already had an idea what this was all about, but it was up to her parents to tell her the truth. Twinkle Star began to doubt her decision… would it really be better if everyone knew where they came from, even if they were content with how their life was up till now? But Aline wasn’t content, she realised. In her heart Aline knew where she was born, without someone ever telling her. She had told her earlier that evening. She was attracted to the plains, she thought, but that was wrong. She wasn’t attracted to the plains, but to that what was beyond those plains. She is just like all of them, Twinkle Star realised, just like all of us…

“Aline, you remember how we told you we lost all our relatives and your older brother on the night of the eruption, because the forest caught fire? Well, even though this is true, and even though it is true that there used to be a forest on the plains which was destroyed by the eruption, it was not in this forest in which we lost everything.” Aline’s father began to explain. Aline was staring at him, motionless. “That pendant you are wearing, the pendants we are wearing… they are the only things we have left from the place where we once came from.” Aline’s mother continued. “Princess Twinkle Star here…  She is a princess of the Friendship Lands, as you have already guessed I think. You see her pendant, Aline? It’s the highest pendant ever granted to a family. There are many kinds of pendants and yes, ours belongs to a family as well. We used to watch over Ekiyu Forest, the large forest of the Friendship Lands at the foot of the mountain Adaine. It was our region that we watched in the name of the queen.”

Twinkle Star nodded silently. Just as she had suspected all along, ever since she saw Aline for the first time earlier that evening. The butterfly pendant… there was no mistake. These ponies were survivors of the steward families, the families that watched regions of the Friendship Lands for the queen because she simply couldn’t watch over them all by herself; for that, the land had been way to large and there were so many other things to do. There had been several steward families, all looking out over a certain part of the land. “So… so you two are born there?” Aline asked. “Not only us two, Aline. You have been born there, too. You were only a year old when it happened. I am not even sure why we were able to survive. We ran into the mountains, but it was only up there when we realised the others weren’t with us…” Aline’s mother began to cry. Her husband gave her a little hug. “ We ran into the fields on the other side of the mountain. We had to run for hours, because the lava and the fire were still catching up with us. We didn’t dare to look behind us. Your brother… we lost him there. He slipped, and broke his ankle. Couldn’t move anymore, and I couldn’t carry him, he was simply too heavy. I told your mother to take you and run and we would catch up. I… He never made it, my boy…”