The copper stone.

“Twinkle! Ey Twinkle, wake up! You don’t want to miss this!”
Twinkle Star heard someone say somewhere in the distance. Slowly she opened her eyes and she noticed it was morning. She saw two legs standing in front of her face and when she looked up she saw Aline looking down on her. It was morning now, and Twinkle Star noticed the sky was already nice light blue. There was a little morning dew on the trees and the plants.  
“What?” She groaned.
“Damina’s going to use the water on the stone! Come on, I wanna see what happens!”
There probably was not a thing in the world that could have made Twinkle Star get up faster. She quickly got on her feet, drank a little water from the lake for refreshment, and followed Aline.

Aline led her to a small open place behind the little wooden house. Damina was there already, just as Vesti, Stelline and even Testi, who of course still had detention but was allowed to witness this. Aline shrugged when she saw Testi and sat down as far away from her as she could. Twinkle Star noticed Testi looked guilty and didn’t really know how to behave. Her mother had been strict on her, Twinkle Star knew. Twinkle Star sat down on the opposite side of Damina. They sat in some kind of circle now. In the middle was a large wooden bucket, with the stone inside.

Twinkle Star could finally see with her own eyes what Damina and Vesti had been talking about. The stone really was weird and it was hard to describe what Twinkle Star saw. The stone, on the outside, was indeed completely round. There wasn’t a bump or crack on the stone. It was perfect. But the inside… It was almost as if there was some kind of sand and smoke mixed inside. It was in swirls and if Twinkle star didn’t know any better she would have thought it was moving slowly, as if the stone wasn’t solid but hollow. The inside was brownish with some thing grey streaks. It really is a fascinating stone, Twinkle Star thought, and she was convinced the stone was indeed a magical stone, but she didn’t know exactly what it would do. She had never seen a stone like this before, and by the looks of it Damina hadn’t either. Twinkle Star hoped the water from Fiume would solve some of the mysteries of the stone.

The water from Fiume was in a jar now, and was standing next to Damina.
When everybody was quitend and sat down, Damina said: “Okay everyone, I want you all to listen carefully. First, I want to assure you all, that you are not, under any circumstance, allowed to touch the stone before I say you can. I do not know what kind of stone it is or what powers it has, and I do now know what kind of effect this water will have. Therefore, as second, I want you all to be careful when I pour the water on the stone. I am pretty sure nothing serious will happen, but if I say you all have to leave, I want you all to leave without asking questions. Third, I want you all to look at the stone carefully. The six of us are bound to see more than I can alone, so remember anything unusual you see and report it to me immediately after I saw I am done. Is this all clear?”
All the ponies nodded, and Damina picked the jar from the ground. Slowly she poured the water over the stone. She let it fall on top off the stone, and from there it went to all directions and slowly a layer of water grew in the bucket. Apparently the bucket really was water proof, as no water was coming out of it. Twinkle Star watched the stone closely, but she didn’t see any change at first. Nothing happened, except that the stone went wet. She heard Aline sigh with disappointment.

But after a short while, when Damina was done with pouring water in the stone, Twinkle Star noticed something was happening inside the stone. The grey streaks were blending with the brown streaks, and it looked as if the brown was moving. Twinkle Star looked at Damina who was smiling.
“It is okay,” Damina said, when she noticed most of the other ponies were looking at her, “The water is indeed purifying the stone. I still do not know what is going on with this stone and what kind of stone it is, but I do not expect anything extraordinary to happen now. I think it is best we all do our usual stuff and check on the stone every thirty minutes. I think it will be at least twelve hours before the stone will be completely purified.”

Twinkle Star noticed Aline and Vesti looked a bit disappointed, and she was a little bit disappointed herself as she had to wait longer, but she was happy nothing serious had happened. She was curious about the stone, and she knew she would find out somehow what it was. Now that she had seen it, she was determined to find out the truth of this stone.
“Hey Twinkle,” she heard Aline say, who was walking next to her now, “How about some breakfast? Vesti has prepared us some fruit and all. It looks delicious!”
“Sure!” Twinkle Star said excited, “I’m quite hungry. Where’s that food of yours?” Aline pointed at her sleeping place, where a large plate with quite a bit of fruit from all different kinds was waiting for them.

“Aren’t you disappointed?” Aline asked when they had sat down and were eating their fruit. “I mean, with the stone and all? I had hoped there would be some action or something.”
Twinkle Star laughed. “Yeah right. Like what?” She asked.
“Well, I dunno, something like bright colours coming out of it, or maybe a fairy or something! Wouldn’t that be cool?” Aline said excited and Twinkle Star laughed again.
“You have too much imagination, Aline!”
“What did you expect, then?” Aline asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Something like what actually happened, I suppose. The water is cleaning the dirt inside. I had hoped it would go faster, though. I cannot wait to see what the stone is supposed to look like.” 
With this, Aline agreed and she took another bite of her melon.

The afternoon was of course quite hot, and Aline had decided to go for a short swim in the lake with Stelline and Vesti. Twinkle Star noticed Testi working in the vegetables garden, and she felt a little sorry for her. The poor pony had done a horrible thing of course, and Twinkle Star still didn’t know if she had forgiven her yet, but Damina was maybe a bit too strict on her. Aline had asked Twinkle Star to join them in the water, but Twinkle Star didn’t feel like it. She was sitting on the bank, watching Aline and Vesti splashing and laughing on the other side of the lake, where the water wasn’t deep so they could stand. Stelline was joining them, but as usual she had a little trouble relaxing and enjoying the moment. Twinkle Star had her hoof in the water and was stirring it a bit. She was thinking of the stone. The stone had changed color quite a bit. The brown sandy color was gone now, and it had gotten a copper color. It appeared to be see-through, but she couldn’t be sure as the stone wasn’t completely clean now. Twinkle Star couldn’t remember anything about a stone like this. See through, a copper color… most magical stones weren’t see through. Most were just ordinary jewels, minerals, which had magical powers inserted in them. Twinkle Star knew this wasn’t a stone like this. This stone wasn’t magical because someone had given it powers, it had powers from itself. She wasn’t sure of this, but the stone itself wasn’t just a jewel you could pick up somewhere, that much she knew for sure.

“It’s nice, isn’t it, seeing them play like that.”
A voice suddenly said and Twinkle Star looked up. Damina was standing next to her, looking at Aline and the others play.
“Yes, it is.” Twinkle Star answered, still playing with the water.
“Why don’t you join them?” Damina asked.
 “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t feel like playing. I wanted to think a little bit.”
“About the stone?”
“Yeah. It intrigues me. I don’t know why. I can’t really explain it. I can’t keep my mind of it. It’s like I have to know more about it.”
Damina sat down next to Twinkle Star.
“I know what you mean. That is… I am interested in it. This is not just your ordinary magical stone. I think it’s not even a strong magical stone like we used to have in the old lands. I think it’s magical from itself.”
Damina was confirming Twinkle Star’s exact thoughts.
“I was thinking that too. Have you ever seen a stone like that?”
Damina shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I only know about them because I read about them in old books. They said stones could form their own magical powers sometimes under very special circumstances. These stones are usually stronger than a stone with inserted powers, however there is no way to control that power. It can fade, and we cannot hold it. This is how the last of these stones have been destroyed. The powers simply faded. I know, it’s confusing. I don’t know much either. I think the last of them was seen about fifteen hundred years ago.”

“Wow.” Was the only thing Twinkle Star could say.
“Whatever it is, we have to be careful with it. We don’t know what powers it holds, Twinkle Star. I will keep a close eye on it.” With this said, Damina stood up and returned to the stone. Twinkel Star sighed and lay down and stirred the water again, while she continued to think about the stone.

During the rest of the day the stone continued to become more copper colored and see through. It was as if a white mist was forming in the stone which was softly swirling around, but other than this, nothing actually happened. The ponies had a quiet dinner, and in the evening Vesti had shown Twinkle Star, Stelline and Aline where they got their stones out of the lake, but at the moment there really weren’t any stones to be found. Most were found when it was fall, because the underground river appeared to become more unstable during those days, which disturbed the bottom of the lake which made the jewels come to the surface of the bottom. After this long walk, the ponies had been sitting down by the lake, while Aline told a story about a ghost pony who was haunting others. It was a little horror story she had heard once while she was out camping with some friends, but as she told the story to Twinkle Star and the others, Aline herself was the only pony spooked by it.

Now, Twinkle Star was laying under her blanket. She couldn’t really sleep, as she was still thinking of the stone. It had her bewitched somehow. It was all she could think of. She felt so connected to the stone, that it was hard to explain, even to herself. Her friends had fallen asleep quite a while ago now, but Twinkle Star simply couldn’t sleep so she decided to walk around for a bit and drink some water. But as she was standing by the lake her thoughts returned to the stone again. She looked behind her and she figured she could go and take a quick look. No one would know, and what was the harm? She would simply checking if the stone was okay. Softly she walked next to the house. When she peeked around the corner, her heart skipped a beat. The stone was laying in it’s bucket, but it was glowing. Twinkle Star was sure this was the stone itself, and not the reflection of the moon. Slow and softly she approached the stone. When she looked in the bucket she noticed it was the white mist inside the stone that was glowing. The copper glow simply came from the light of the mist that was shining through the rest of the stone, which was copper colored.

Twinkle Star wondered what she should do. Would she wake up Damina? Or should he inspect the stone herself? She knew waking up Damina would be the wisest thing to do, but it was almost as if she had no control herself anymore. She had to touch the stone, she had to feel it. Twinkle Star didn’t know why she had to, she didn’t know what was making her do this. She knew it wasn’t her own mind, it was something larger, something she felt she had to obey. Slowly she raised her right hoof and put it in the bucket. When her hoof softly touched the stone nothing extraordinary happened at first and Twinkle Star was already beginning to wonder why she had felt the strong urge to touch it, when she heard the voice. She didn’t understand what it was saying first, but the voice entranced Twinkle Star somehow. She didn’t see what was around her anymore. Everything turned the copper color of the stone, and all she could do was listen to the voice. It sounded so desperate, so sad, so helpless…
“Twinkle Star...” Twinkle Star didn’t recognise the voice, but it enchanted her. “Twinkle Star… she is out there.”
Who is? Twinkle Star thought, but she knew her thoughts couldn’t reach the voice.
“Find her, Twinkle Star. She is out there… The true heir to the throne… Find her, before it is too late…”