Stelline and the beauty of the stars

“Stelline… it wasn’t your fault Joker died, really, it wasn’t…” Twinkle Star said softly.
She felt it was really hard to keep her voice from trembling and to keep her tears from flowing down her cheeks. She really was upset by what Stelline had just told her. Not because she blamed Stelline for Joker’s death. She knew it wasn’t Stelline’s fault, and she would never blame Stelline for it. But… the death of her own sister… somehow it was so hard to believe. After she had found out her mother was alive, after she had met Crystal and they went looking for her mother and the new Friendship Lands about a year ago… she had felt as if maybe all of her sisters could have survived. She didn’t know, of course, but maybe all of them were out there, this thought helped her through a lot of painful moments… But Joker wasn’t alive anymore, she knew now. Joker had died that day, there was no mistake about it now. Her sister Joker… Twinkle Star sighed and looked at the horizon. The sun was rising now. The sky was becoming a nice shade of red and Twinkle Star knew the day would soon come, but she knew the light of the sun couldn’t take this nasty feeling away from her.

“How do you know, Twinkle Star! I told her to take that path, I let her go to rescue that little girl! And now she’s dead, because I couldn’t stop her!” Stelline yelled to Twinkle Star.
“Stelline! To rescue that little girl was Joker’s own decision. You wouldn’t have been able to stop her even if you wanted to. It’s not your fault she died!” Twinkle Star said.
“But I…” Steline began, but to Twinkle Star’s amazement Aline interrupted her. “Stelline… I don’t really know how you feel. I lost my brother with the eruption but I don’t really remember him. In fact, I only know for a few days that I actually come form the Friendship Lands, and that I am a heir of Daiya. So I don’t know how it feels to lose somebody, especially not someone close to you, as that simply had never happened to me before. But I do feel the guilt and the pain of this country, the guilt of losing those who I had to protect. It is in my soul, too. We all feel alone and afraid because of what happened. But that doesn’t mean we should blame ourselves and run away from the world. There is nothing we could do about it. All we can do is live our lives to the fullest and, maybe one day, we can restore the glory and pride of the past.”

Twinkle Star and Stelline stared at Aline. Where did that come from? Twinkle star thought. Since when was Aline so wise? Aline just stood there calmly, in the light of the rising sun. She wasn’t the scared little girl of a few hours before. She wasn’t afraid of Stelline anymore, she knew what she had to say and what she had to do. “Aline, I…” Twinkle Star began, but Aline interrupted her.
“I know what you’re going to say, Twinkle Star. What on earth are you talking about, all that stuff. But this is something I truly believe in. I know it sounds weird coming from me, but I truly feel this is the truth and what I am living for! The Friendship Lands are gone but we are still here. Isn’t that what you told me, Twinkle Star? The magic lives on, somewhere deep inside of us.” Twinkle Star smiled.
“I know, Aline. I’m glad you said this.” She really was.
Somehow, with Aline’s confidence, she knew it was possible for them to live on without feeling guilty for those they couldn’t save. They simply had to, there was no other way.

She looked at Stelline and was surprised by the scared look in her eyes. She looked so upset, so alone once again.
“No, I…” she said softly, “I can’t live on just like that, Twinkle Star. I can’t forget, I… I don’t want to forget her…”
“Stelline, you don’t have to forget her! But please… don’t linger here all alone anymore. Do you really think this is what Joker wanted you to do? To live all alone in the shadows of the world? Please Stelline, come with me. Come and live with us in the new lands.  You don’t even have to become the next queen if you don’t want that. I’m sure mom will be happy just to see you are alive, nothing more.” Twinkle Star said with a soft voice.
She walked towards her sister who sat on the ground now and Twinkle Star sat down next to her.
“But I… I can’t face mother, I can’t, I let her daughter die, I…” Stelline cried.
Twinkle Star let her hoof touch Stelline’s pure white fur. Somehow it was amazingly soft, much softer than the fur of other ponies.
“Really, Stelline, you will be okay. You’re not alone anymore.” When she heard the last sentence Stelline looked up and stared at Twinkle Star in amazement. “Really?” She said with a high, surprised voice.
Twinkle Star nodded. “Really. I’m here for you.”
“And don’t forget me!” Aline suddenly shouted. She walked towards Stelline and sat next to her on the other side. “I’m here for you too! Maybe you don’t really know me or anything, but I’m here for you if you need me, Stelline!” Aline said and Twinkle Star couldn’t help but laugh a bit. This was the impulsive Aline all right.
 “So you two mean I can come with you, and you don’t mind? You’re not mad at me?” Stelline said, still surprised.
 “Of course we’re not mad at you, why would we be, Stelline?” Twinkle star asked. “
Well, I always thought ponies would be mad at me, wouldn’t want anything to do with me anymore once they found out the truth of what I had done. Actually… that is why I told you two. I figured you would definitely leave me alone.”
 “But we didn’t, and we’re not going to. You’ve been alone all this time, haven’t you, Stelline?” Aline said.
Stelline nodded. Twinkle Star couldn’t help but feel very sorry for her sister. All these years she had lived in guilt and so alone. No wonder she had been so angry and distant. No wonder it was hard for her to have a normal conversation without feeling threatened or angry.
“I… I want to go with you, Twinkle Star. I want to see mother again, and I want to meet Ivy and Fleur, and see Crystal again… I missed them, you have no idea how much I missed them…” Stelline said, while she began to cry again. Twinkle Star nodded in agreement.
“I know, Stelline, I know.You’re coming with us, Stelline…”

“Yeah, but how?” Aline said. “I mean, are we going straight to the new lands, or are we going somewhere else first?”
 “Well,” Twinkle Star began, “we only have food for a few more days, counting on 2 ponies. We need more now considering there’s three of us. We need some provision Aline, that’s for sure.”
“Why don’t we go to my village first, then? Just as we planned. My parent’s won’t mind. We can stay there for a night or two and then travel on.” Aline proposed and Twinkle Star agreed.
They noticed Stelline was a bit unsure about going to a crowded village, but she didn’t object. Having a unicorn with us sure will draw a lot of attention, Twinkle Star thought. Unicorns were rare and she was sure that to people who had never been to the Friendship Lands before or knew about them, they were nothing but a legend as they never existed outside of the Friendship Lands.

But that wasn’t something they had to worry about now. They had quite some travelling ahead of them; it would at least take another 4 or 5 days to get to the village and Twinkle Star had no idea how long it would take them to get back to the new Friendship Lands. More than three weeks definitely, if they took the road she had taken, that is, back to Kiyoi’s forest. It took her much less time to come here, but of course this time she couldn’t fly at all which meant she would go at least tree times as slow.

They just sat down there for a while, watching the sun rise. Twinkle Star now had a better look at the field and she realised she had been right when she thought this had been a room or something. Some of the rocks on the ground still showed signs of white and silver paint. The rocks actually weren’t really rocks, they looked like broken pieces of a wall. The field wasn’t as big as she had first thought it would be though. To their right it would change into some sort of weird road quite soon which was filled with dark grey rocks and pretty hard to walk on, and the mountains on their left were much, much closer than Twinkle Star had thought when she could only see the silhouette of them against the starry sky. It was still very early in the morning though. Twinkle Star could still see the moon and some of the brighter stars in the sky, while the sun was slowly rising in the west.  The brightest stars in the sky… They had always reminded Twinkle Star of a unicorn, of her sister Stelline. Somehow… unicorns had a special connection to the stars, as if they would shine brighter when they were around.

She sighed. She really didn’t like this place, somehow it kind of scared her. It was all so sad… Maybe even more sad than the other places they had been so far. Those places had just been nature, which had been changed by nature. This however had been a place build by ponies, where ponies once lived maybe, or at least it was a special place to the unicorns, and now it was destroyed, gone…

No wonder Stelline got so lonely and sad here. Would she really just stay here in this lonely place when she was back here? How often would she come here, anyway? Stelline had said she would come back here every once in a while, but she never told how often that was. Twinkle Star had a lot of questions for her sister, but she knew she shouldn’t ask them right now. She just needed some rest. Twinkle Star looked at Stelline and she noticed she looked a bit better now that the sun was up. Her eyes, though she was still crying, didn’t look so lonely anymore and the light of the sun was reflected in them. Maybe she was relieved, glad that she didn’t have to bear this burden all alone anymore, Twinkle Star thought.

“Okay, How long are we going to sit here? I mean, if we want to get back, we better go now, while it’s still morning, so we can advance a long way before it gets dark again.” Aline suddenly said. Twinkle Star agreed with her and they both looked at Stelline. Stelline got on her hoofs and nodded.
“Let’s go. I don’t want to stay here any longer.” She said with a soft voice and smiled at Aline and Twinkle Star. Twinkle Star was glad her sister smiled. She looked a bit confident and she was happy she made the decision to leave this place, Twinkle Star realised.

Together they walked towards the hallway from which they had come earlier that night. Aline walked in the front, close behind her walked Stelline and Twinkle Star walked in the back. She didn’t mind to walk alone for a while. She had acted tough when she had talked with Stelline earlier, but what Stelline had told her definitely had affected her. This was the first time she heard a sister of her had actually died… Her sister Joker, who was two years older than she was. Joker, the funny girl, the one who was so good in sports, the one who could entertain anyone at any time. Twinkle Star remembered the time that she and Joker had gotten lost in a small forest close to their castle. Twinkle Star had been so afraid, she was only 3 or four years old, but Joker had been able to cheer her up and make her laugh, no matter how afraid she was. But Joker wasn’t here anymore now, and she had to accept that, no matter how hard it was. She had to accept that her last lost sister was gone…

Suddenly Twinkle Star stopped walking. She felt it. She felt it clearly once again. She quickly turned around. Where was it? This huge power… There was no mistake. It was the pony she had seen and felt in the storm. This power, this anger… Suddenly she saw it. The silhouette of the pony on the hills left of her. Twinkle Star couldn’t see the pony, as the sun was rising behind her. All she could see was the silhouette of a pony, a pony just standing there, as a breeze played with her hair and made it flow towards the south.
 “Twinkle! Ey, Twinkle Star! What are you doing?” She heard Aline yell.
Twinkle Star turned around and she saw Aline and Stelline were already at the entrance of the hallway, waiting for her. Twinkle Star yelled that she would be with them in a few minutes, but when she looked at the hills again the pony was gone, just as the feeling of the powers. It had vanished completely, as if it had never been there.
“We shall meet again…” She could hear the voice of the pony in her head again. The soft voice, the powerful voice, the voice of one who had mastered the royal powers of the Friendship Lands… Twinkle Star wasn’t really sure if she was looking forward to meet that pony again. When Twinkle star turned back to Aline and Stelline she looked at the hill top once again. The pony was gone, and Twinkle Star couldn’t help but wonder why the pony was here and who it was.