a unicorn’s soul

As they walked through the hallway, Twinkle Star couldn’t help but become more amazed with every step she took. The hallway was beautifully done and there didn’t seem to be an end to it.  The silver swirls and the clear white walls continued endlessly. They had been walking there for a while now and still there didn’t seem to be an end to the hallway. Once they had entered the hallway, the doors had closed again behind them. Aline had panicked for a while, being afraid they were trapped inside, but Twinkle Star had assured her she was able to open the doors again with her pendant.

On the walls were paintings of unicorns on each side, between the torches. The frames were silver-colored and the corners ended in the same swirls as were on the walls. Aline had been surprised when she saw every unicorn had almost the same appearance. All the unicorns were white with either white or silver hair, and the silver curls and swirls that were on the walls and the door in this place were all over their bodies, though a little different with each unicorn. Their hoofs were silver colored, too. The only thing that really differed with each unicorn was the color and size of their horns. Some unicorns had really small horns in the same color as their body, and some had bigger ones sometimes silver colored, but they had seen quite a lot of other colors by now, like gold or red, and even a green one. With all these unicorns, it was hard for Twinkle Star to remember how her sister exactly looked like. Of course, she had been white with the silver swirls, too, but what color her horn or her mane were, or what size her horn was… Twinkle Star couldn’t remember that.

The unicorns were painted in locations in the old Friendship Lands. Twinkle Star had recognised the river Fiume, a few villages, some very familiar farms, but she noticed the Ekiyu forest was on the paintings a lot of times. Ekiyu forest was the forest which Aline’s family used to watch over and it wasn’t that hard to recognise. A weird kind of tree grew in that forest, and only in that forest. The trees had all kinds of colored leafs, though each tree only had one color. There were trees with pink leaves, purple leaves, blue leaves, green leaves… Aline had been amazed by the paintings of the forest and she had become quite silent after a while, being impressed by the place that she was supposed to guard over. Of course she realised it wasn’t there anymore and there wasn’t any other place in the world where trees like this used to grow.

Of course, every unicorn had her own face and specific features, but it was still hard to tell them apart. Under the paintings names were written, they had noticed, in the ancient language, and a year of birth. The first painting had been from the year 9867, which was about 1700 years ago, Twinkle Star calculated. She wasn’t really sure what year it was now, but the year of the eruption had been 11561. Of course, this was the counting of the Friendship Lands which began at the founding of the lands all those years ago. When the Friendship Lands were destroyed, this counting was lost as well, as none of the other countries used it, if they used any at all. Twinkle Star did wonder why the paintings had stopped in the year 9867. She knew there had been very, very few unicorns the last 1000 years… maybe two or three. Maybe the secrets of this place were lost to them, too, so they couldn’t add new paintings as they didn’t know of it’s existance…

As they advanced through the hall they noticed they went back in time, so to speak. The paintings got older and the ponies portrayed on them were from earlier years. They were at the year 8532 now, and they noticed there was a unicorn born almost every 50 years.
“I thought unicorns were really rare and all, right? But if they were born every 50 years, I dunno, that doesn’t sound that rare to me actually…” Aline said.
“Well, I’m surprised with this too. All I know is that the entire family was really, really surprised Stelline was a unicorn because there hadn’t been one for so long. I don’t really know what happened. Maybe something happened after the year 10000 which made them become more rare?” Twinkle Star said softly.
Somehow she felt as if the unicorns would be offended if she would talk loud, as if she would wake them from an eternal sleep. They were at the year 8103 now, and still the style of the paintings was the same, the backgrounds were the same… Twinkle Star sighed. The old friendship lands… it wasn’t without a reason ponies used to call it the immortal queendom. Not much things changed in the country and ponies were satisfied with that. Suddenly she stopped walking. The painting on her right made her lose her breath for a short while.

There it was, suddenly, out of nowhere. In the background of the painting of a unicorn called Atana, dated 8079, was the royal castle of the Friendship Lands. It was just as Twinkle Star remembered it. The highest tower above the entrance gate, the two smaller ones next to it, the huge walls, the garden, the moat that surrounded it… You couldn’t think of it as just a castle even if you wanted to. It wasn’t just a huge castle, it had something, something magical that enchanted you, that made you realise the powers it held, the powers to protect this entire country…
 “It’s beautiful…” She heard Aline say.
“It really is…” Twinkle Star answered.
She had no idea that a simple picture of the castle could move her so much, she couldn’t imagine that she had forgotten it, it’s magic, it’s beauty. Even though this picture was 3000 years old, the castle still looked the same. It hadn’t changed a bit. The pony in the front, Atana, was wearing the queen’s crown, which meant she was the queen of the friendship Lands and thus Twinkle Star’s direct ancestor. That crown… She had seen her grandmother wearing it, the few times she had seen her. Her mother didn’t had it though, when she met her in the friendship lands. She was still wearing the crown of the heir, which looked the same as the queen’s crown, only it was dark purple instead of dark red, as the queen’s crown was. It was worn by the heir to the throne until she became queen and it would be passed on to her oldest daughter, but of course Regina had never been able to receive her mother’s crown as she vanished during the eruption and the crown was probably lost…

Twinkle Star sighed.
“Let’s go on, Aline. It’s no use lingering here.” And she turned her back on the painting, trying to focus on the present situation.
She heard Aline following her a few moments later.
“How much longer do you think this hallway will go on, Twinkle?” She asked.
“I don’t know, Aline. Probably till we reach the year 0, or something like that.” “The year 0?”
 “Yeah. I mean, it has to end some time, doesn’t it? Or maybe till we reach the year 1, or whenever the first known unicorn was, I don’t know.” Twinkle Star explained.
“What will be there, then?” Aline asked and Twinkle Star sighed.
“I don’t know, Aline. I haven’t been here before either, you know.” Aline remained silent.

The hallway still went on without an ending. They were at the year 7596 now, and they noticed there had been only a few unicorns the last 500 years. Maybe it wasn’t so weird that there hadn’t been a unicorn in such a long time when Stelline was born, Twinkle Star thought. She didn’t know what made a unicorn to be born, but maybe sometimes they were more needed… or something. Twinkle Star didn’t like knowing so little, she wanted to know the truth behind all this, but of course walking around like this wasn’t going to give her any answers. But then again, there wasn’t that much else that she could do…

Slowly they walked on. They saw two more unicorns like Atana, who were wearing the queen’s crown and were painted in front of the royal castle, though with different angles of course. Every time Twinkle Star saw the castle she felt weird and uncomfortable. The memories of that place were painful enough, and she didn’t want to see it with her eyes as well. But only three unicorns appeared to have been queen, which surprised Twinkle Star. She thought strong royal powers were required to become a unicorn, but she apparently had been wrong with this. What did make you a unicorn anyway?

“What’s that light over there, Twinkle?” Aline suddenly asked.
“What light?” Twinkle Star asked and Aline pointed straight forward. She was right, there was a stronger light in front of them, which appeared to come from above as well from the wall.
“The end of the hallway I think, Aline. Let’s go check it out.” Twinkle Star said and she began to walk a little faster. The paintings said 6513 now, but by the time they reached the light they had dropped to 5202.

Twinkle Star couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw it. They had reached a T-crossing, but right in front of them was the arc of a circle in the wall. A red ribbon was stretched between the walls, and behind it stood a huge painting which wasn’t like the others. It was at least three times as big and wasn’t hanging on the wall, but it stood on a table of stone which was also white with the silver swirls on them. The walls had four torches on them, which were a bit smaller than the ones they had seen before. A light came from above, too, but Twinkle Star couldn’t figure out what created the light. On the left and right side were two large candles lit, which of course had the same pattern on them as the rest of the place, white with silver swirls. On the painting stood the most beautiful Unicorn they had ever seen. She was whiter than the others, her swirls were fuller, prettier, more curved and bend. Her tail was pure white with a few silver streaks in them that looked like they reflected the light of the sun. Her mane were completely silver-colored and were almost as long as Twinkle Star’s mane, that is, they touched the ground, which definitely was longer than most mane were. Her eyes were like diamonds and shone in the sunlight. Her golden-colored horn was longer than any they had seen before. She looked towards Aline and Twinkle Star with a grace and dignity that Twinkle Star had never seen. Behind her was the forest of Ekiyu in spring, when the trees were still blossoming. All the trees had different colored blossom in them, which meant that the trees were so full of color it was hard to tell the colors apart. “Who is she?” Aline whispered. Twinkle Star looked at the sign that was in front of the painting on the table. It was written in the ancient language once again, but Twinkle Star didn’t have much trouble reading the larger letters that were above the sign.
“Aline… you’re not going to believe this.” Twinkle Star whispered.
“What?”
“This unicorn… this is Daiya, Aline. Daiya, born 4994, the first unicorn.”
Twinkle Star didn’t know how long they had been standing there. It was all just so hard to believe. Daiya, Aline’s ancestor… was the first unicorn? Of course, this explained why only Aline was able to open the right door. Aline was Daiya’s ancestor, she was an ancestor of the first unicorn. Twinkle Star had been trying very hard to read what else the sign said, but all she could find out only confirmed what they already knew. This was indeed Daiya, third daughter to the mighty queen Hikari. She became duchess of the Ekiyu region, and founded the family of Daiya who became duchesses of the Ekiyu region after Daiya had died at a very high age. Twinkle Star sighed. When she looked at Aline she saw the tears in her eyes. It was probably quite hard for Aline, she thought, to see this, her ancestor, to see where she came from, to see what her future was supposed to be but what it never will be.

Twinkle Star looked at the painting again. It really was beautiful, and Daiya, even if she was only a little bit like this in real life, was beautiful, powerful, dazzling, and still a bit sad, like the brightest star in the night. This was the strength of the royal family in it’s strongest days, Twinkle Star realised. The third child, and still so strong… Twinkle Star was the third child too, but she wasn’t anything like this, she didn’t even came close. Not even Stelline, the first daughter of her mother, was like this.

“She’s gorgeous, isn’t she, Twinkle?” Aline whispered after a while. Twinkle Star nodded.
“She really is…”
“I can’t believe she is my ancestor…” Aline whispered.
 “I… I’m glad to know what she looks like…”
Twinkle Star agreed. “It was worth the journey, only to see this…” She whispered. “Was it now, Twinkle?” A voice suddenly said.
“Is this really satisfying enough for you?”
Twinkle Star and Aline looked to their left, where the voice was coming from.
The hallway on that side was dark, but they could clearly see a pony walking towards them.
 “Is Daiya really enough for you? Aren’t you looking for more?” The pony said. Suddenly Twinkle Star recognised the voice. She heard it before, only now it was colder, more distant… “Stelline…”