A unicorn’s powers

Suddenly Twinkle Star felt it. She didn’t really know where it came from, but she was absolutely sure this were some kind of Royal powers. Or were they? Whie Twinkle Star still kept an eye on the giant monster, she wondered what exactly it was that she felt. It were royal powers, but they felt different. Not stronger, but more concentrated, and something was added to it that she couldn’t really describe as she had never felt it before. She was sure though, that this was what was stopping the monster from attacking.

But then Twinkle Star saw the silhouette against the rising sun. There was no mistake who the pony was. Twinkle Star recognised the horn on the pony’s forehead. It couldn’t be anyone else but her oldest sister.
“Stelline…” She whispered. Of course it was Stelline.
“What?” Aline asked, confused. Twinkle Star had a last quick look at the monster, that was still standing there, ready to attack but not moving.
“Come, let’s go, follow me!” She said softly and she began to walk as fast as she could towards Stelline, and she heard Aline was following her. Stelline was just standing still, not moving, focussing. Twinkle Star noticed her horn wad glowing a little, was producing light of it’s own. This was what Twinkle Star had been feeling. The additional powers were Stelline’s unicorn powers, and the fact that the powers were so concentrated was of course because of her horn. Stelline could focus her energy.

When they reached Stelline they noticed the ground was going downwards behind her and Testi and Vesti were standing a bit lower, waiting for Stelline to return with Twinkle Star and Aline. It was indeed Stelline who was holding the monster, Twinkle Star was absolutely sure now. Stelline had her eyes closed, and her horn gave some weird orange glow. She was completely focussed on her task. Now that Twinkle Star was so close, she could clearly feel the difference of Stelline’s powers and your average royal power. The powers of a unicorn really were amazing, she realised. Twinkle Star noticed Aline was also staring at Stelline. Twinkle Star looked back, and she saw the monster was still standing still. Twinkle Star looked at the other side of the hill she was standing on and Vesti winked that they had to move on. There was no time to linger. Twinkle Star noticed Aline was hesitating. She really didn’t want to go with Vesti and Testi again, of course.
“I don’t…” Aline began but Twinkle Star interrupted her.
“You have to, Aline. Only they know the way in this place. We’ll be gone as soon as we can, but we need them for now.” And she walked towards the twins, Aline following her.

“Is Aline okay?” Vesti asked when Twinkle Star and Aline had reached them. Aline nodded softly, not really sure what to say.
“We have to hurry. Stelline said she wasn’t able to hold it for long, or so she said. Follow me.” Vesti said and gave a very short whistle. After that, they began to gallop to the west. It didn’t take long for Stelline to catch up with them. About fifteen minutes later, they had a quick break to get some air and some water, them onster nowhere to be seen.

“We can’t stay here for long. As soon as it gets conscious, it’ll follow the scent of the chocolate.” Vesti said, while looking angrily at Testi, who lowered her head. Obviously Vesti was angry with Testi as well, which relieved Twinkle Star somewhat.
“What did you do?” Twinkle Star asked Stelline. She was still amazed with the powers Stelline had just shown. She didn’t know telline was capable of such stuff. “How were you able to stop that monster?”
Stelline smiled. “Mind lock.” Stelline said, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. “It’s not that hard, really, for a unicorn. I can temporarily lock the creature’s brain, so it can’t give signals to it’s body, so it won’t move. When I left I tried to make it as dizzy as I could, so it’ll be out for a while. I’m not sure when it will recover though.”
Twinkle Star stared at Stelline. A unicorn’s powers…
“You can do that on anyone?” She asked.
“No, not really. Only simple minded creatures as that thing over there. It’s one of the unicorn gifts. I practiced it on little creatures when I was younger. Never thought I had to use it on something this big. You’re lucky it actually worked out, you know.” Twinkle Star smiled. Her sister’s powers… Twinkle Star was happy her sister was able to use her unicorn’s powers well now. As a child, Stelline had almost none and their mother had been really disappointed with that. She had practised so often, done things exactly as they were described in the old books, but somehow Stelline had never been able to manage the unicorn powers. Twinkle Star realised Stelline had learned all those things by herself.
“Thanks, Stelline.” Twinkle Star said.
“No problem.” Smiled Stelline.

“What was it anyway?” Aline asked, while she was looking at the chocolate in her hair. It was all over, and it had made her hair all frizzy. It would take weeks for it to return to normal, Twinkle Star thought. “The monster, I mean.” Aline said, when Vesti looked at her confused.
“A desert centipede. They’re quite harmless actually. I’ve been realy close to some a few times, without being in danger. They won’t hurt other animals, unless they are really hungry. Then you have to stay away from them as far as possible.” Vesti answered.
“So we noticed. Have we lingered far from our route?” Twinkle Star asked, while drinking some of the last water in her bottle. Vesti and Testi did took Aline and Twinkle Star’s bags with them, however they needed more water now that they had run for such a long time.
Vesti shook her head. “I guess we were lucky, as Aline ran away in the right direction. We’re halfway there. It’s only a few more hours.”
 Twinkle Star nodded and she was happy that this part of the journey was almost over. She was growing extremely tired of the desert, and she was already dreading the journey back.

Testi was pretty much ignored, the rest of the road. Vesti walked next to Stelline in the front, and Twinkle Star and Aline walked behind them, while Testi walked in the back, alone. It was obvious Vesti was furious at Testi for putting the chocolate in Aline’s hair. Stelline told Twinkle Star she had been yelling at Testi the entire road when they were looking for Twinkle Star and Aline, yelling how she could have been so selfish and foolish, that she had to know it was dangerous to play with food here, and what’s more, that this was no way to treat anyone, no matter how much you dislike them. Testi hadn’t responded to any of this, and according to Stelline she was quite ashamed of what she had done and she was afraid of her mother’s punishment.  

There was quite a big distance now between Aline and Twinkle Star and the others. Vesti and Stelline were in a conversation and Testi was just lingering behind, alone. Vesti apparently didn’t really care if Testi was able to catch up. Aline’s hair was still a mess, but Twinkle Star knew Aline would be able to get it out somehow. She was more afraid of the smell of the chocolate. Would it attract more of those desert centipede’s? If they would, Twinkle Star wasn’t so sure if they were able to get out of it alive again.

“Twinkle…” Aline began softly.
“Yeah?”
 “About your… I don’t know, was I right, do you really…?” 
Twinkle Star sighed. She knew she had to face this question sometime and knowing Aline it had to be soon, but she didn’t like telling her. She knew Aline had seen her wings, and there was no denying it, but she had preferred it if Aline hadn’t seen it. She really wanted to keep it a secret. There was no point in others knowing it and she wasn’t happy with the fact that two ponies knew now, in such a short time, Kiyoi and Aline. She just hoped both of them would shut up about it. The best she could do was make Aline promise not to tell.
“Yeah… yeah, I do. But please Aline, don’t talk about it, to anyone. I haven’t told anyone and I don’t want to either. It’s my greatest secret and I don’t want any others to know. There is no point in others knowing it. Please, promise me you won’t tell anyone.” Twinkle Star whispered.
Aline was silent for a while, and then nodded.
“I know. I understand. I won’t tell anyone, I swear.” Twinkle Star was relieved. “Thanks, Aline. I really appreciate that.”
“That’s what friends are for, right? Twinkle… Will you promise me you won’t tell anyone about the chocolate hair stuff?”
Twinkle Star grinned. Knowing Aline, she probably thought this was a more important secret to keep than some lousy wings.
“Of course I won’t tell anyone. It’s a promise.” She said and then switched to another subject.

Not much later they saw something appear on the horizon. It was just noon now, and of course really hot once again in the desert. First Twinkle Star thought she was mistaken, that she was just seeing things because of the heat, however she found out it was real when Vesti stopped walking and said “Well, here it is, our little home.” While she pointed at the things Twinkle Star had seen earlier, and this message relieved everyone. The journey through the desert was finally over, and they could relax a bit now. Soon, they would be safe and there would be plenty of cold water and nice, fresh food.

Twinkle Star thought Little Home was quite a misunderstanding. The oasis looked huge. There were palm trees for about a mile long, Twinkle Star figured. They were probably surrounding the lake that was probably larger than she had first thought. She always thought the lake would be small, a few yards long, but it appeared to be much larger, now that she was seeing this. As they came closer Twinkle Star noticed the beauty of the place. Huge palm trees grew quite close to each other, providing enough coolness and shade. Their huge leafs were nice green and were like a roof. They walked through a small path through the trees and Twinkle Star enjoyed the coolness that was here. It felt a little like paradise. Twinkle Star could hear some paradise birds singing somewhere, but she couldn’t see them. On each side of the path grew some tropical bushes with very nice, large flowers growing in them. Aline stopped and smelled at the flowers.
“This is delicious!” She said excited and Vesti laughed.
“They really are. Don’t smell to much, though. I don’t know exactly what it is, but smelling too much of those flowers can make you feel rather dizzy.”
Twinkle Star looked around her and she loved being surrounded by so much green once again. She looked behind her and she saw the desert. She shivered. She was happy she was out of that place, for now.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the large lake in the centre. It really was beautiful. The sun, that was now straight above them, was reflected in the cold water which almost made it seem as if the sun was dancing on the water. Vesti began to drink immediately and the others soon followed, and Aline began to wash her hair. The water felt really pure and refreshing, after only drinking bottled water for two days. It was really cool and it tasted really nice and clean. Twinkle Star had a better look at the lake while she was drinking. The lake was oval shaped, and they were standing on one of  the broader sides. Right across the lake were palm trees as well, but to their left were some open spaces. Twinkle Star figured that was used to find jewels. The water appeared to be less deep there, and there were some tools lying around there. On their right Twinkle Star noticed a small wooden house, with some open space surrounding it. Next to that were some fences, where Twinkle Star saw some vegetables, or something. She figured that was were Vesti and her family grew their food. The little house looked really cosy. There was a nice patio in the front and there was no door, and Twinkle Star figured there probably was no need for one, really. Who would come here to break in, anyway? Suddenly a pony came out of the house and Twinkle Star stopped drinking.
“Hey mom!” Vesti yelled, when she noticed the pony as well. Twinkle Star looked up. There she was, her aunt Damina, staring at them, and all Twinkle Star could do was stare back.