A Change of Reign E-Book

Alex Maister

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Realm of the Unimages
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 664

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

In this enchanting tale, Princess Sallina, a young unicorn from a distant realm, embarks on a vital mission to save her homeland. Through a celestial portal, she arrives on Earth in an English forest. To fulfil her mission, Sallina, now in human form, enrols in a secondary school and forges an alliance with Szymon, another unicorn transformed into a human. Their shared objective is to aid Professor Tinzy, a renowned unicorn who serves on the Council of Unimages, in recovering his lost memories and obtaining a potent magical life-force that has been depleted in their homeland. They race against time to prevent a colossal meteor from annihilating their entire civilization.

However, their quest is riddled with challenges, as they must confront rival factions vying for the mystical substance known as Pinny. Hidden dangers lurk around every corner. As the story unfolds, Princess Sallina grapples with finding her way in a strange land and coping with her world being turned upside down. Her ability to distinguish true allies from apparent adversaries becomes crucial, not only for her own destiny but also for the fate of all the unicorns in her homeland.

Leseprobe

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A Change of Reign

Realm of the Unimages

Alex Maister

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Copyright © 2023 Alex Maister

ISBN: 9781916820715

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored, in any form or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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This book’s dedicated to my wife and daughter

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Only the purest will rule in these fair lands. It shall be sworn and abided by each unicorn alike.

–Extract from the historical records of the Circle

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Chapter 1

Thirteen Weeks and One Day Ago

“I’m on a roller coaster! Whoooooooooooooooooooaaa!” Princess Sallina exclaimed as she hurtled through a tunnel towards an unknown, distant destination. She was quite scared, but at the same time, she knew there was really nothing to be scared of. This was magic, and magic was something that she was comfortable with. After all, she was a unicorn.

Professor Tinzy had talked about this rather oddly shaped, snakelike object that went up very slowly and then came down so incredibly fast, but she had never seen one before now. They didn’t have anything remotely like this in the unicorn city of Starpoint, where she came from. They didn’t even have funfairs in Starpoint.

“Whooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaa!” she cried out again—only this time, she was enjoying the thrill of the ride, despite the anticipatory fear that accompanied it.

The whole experience almost made her forget why she was there in the first place.

She slowed down for a bit as she went up to some unknown higher point, and then whooooooooooooooosssshhhh, she hurtled back down the magic tunnel once more at full throttle, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Boy, this is fun, but also scary, she thought.

This was no ordinary roller coaster ride, oh no! Something incredibly strange was transforming her physical state as she careened through the tunnel. She was not feeling like herself at all; she was overwhelmed by dizziness, as if a terrible illness was taking hold of her entire body and contorting and reshaping it in all kinds of strange ways. Oh yes, something very peculiar was happening and the Professor had never mentioned anything like this!

One moment she could see a black hoof, and then it was gone, replaced by those five peculiar things called toes that were sticking out from where her hoof had once been. Then another hoof turned itself into some oddly shaped things called fingers. Oh, my goodness! What had become of her black, delicately decorated, front unicorn legs that she had relied upon to walk about in her world? Of course, she was accustomed to sitting down and using her front hooves, with their fingernail- like extendable protrusions, just like human beings used their hands, so therefore it wasn’t altogether an unusual experience, but… fingers, what oddities those were!

Now, as she slowed down once again, climbing, there appeared a bright smattering of stars around her, and she rose higher and higher in the magic tunnel, heading toward a mysterious zenith. Her every nerve and muscle could sense that something strange was about to happen as she anticipated a terrifying, sudden drop—a feeling of acceleration that would force her stomach and brain to occupy more or less the exact same physical space. It was a very strange sensation, and not one she wanted to experience too often.

But still…oh, the exhilaration! It was incredible.

This time, she didn’t just drop; she kept on rising, up and up and up, as if there was going to be no end to her climb, as if she was going to spend the rest of her waking life just climbing, climbing, climbing toward some unknown, infinitely high point that couldn’t ever be reached.

She came to an abrupt halt.

There was no movement at all. Suspended and fixed and transfixed, she was momentarily frozen in time and space.

Am I safe here? she wondered.

But the feeling lasted for only a few fleeting seconds as she continued to take in the awesomeness of her magic tunnel ride and noticed the many bright rainbow colours glittering all around her, with a myriad of stars shining somewhere in the distance beyond. What a spectacle to behold! She gave in to a momentary, false sense of serenity and happiness…

Then, suddenly, the tunnel turned pitch black, as if someone had turned off the house lights. And then… Whoooooooooooosssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

She felt like she had been transformed into a lightning bolt, striking down from the heavens to someplace far below.

But this time the descent felt different. This time it was straight down, a vertical drop, as if she was plunging into a bottomless pit, falling like a stone down into some strange void of emptiness, and nothing could break her fall until she impacted the hard ground.

She cried out loudly, for she was truly afraid this time. Her hoof kept switching to a hand, then back to a hoof, the transformations becoming more intense and frequent.

Her face felt odd. There was a sudden flutter of hair that passed in front of her eyes, but this wasn’t the hair that she was used to—her long jet-black mane, which normally ran along her back—this was entirely different. It was the same colour, but it was much longer and finer than her normal body hair, and there was an abundance of it, plus it appeared more delicate and brittle, like it could drop off at any moment. This certainly wasn’t the hair she had been used to all her life, whilst living inside the skin of a young-lady unicorn.

She screamed as she kept plunging, faster and faster, down, down, down, as above her the distant night sky began to disappear in a blur, and below there was absolutely nothing. Incredibly, the absolutely-nothing was met with more nothing the further she fell, falling faster, faster, faster, plummeting towards somewhere unknown.

She screamed even more loudly, but there was nobody to hear her. There was nobody around anywhere, she was all alone here with nothing around her at all, just this dark void that expanded out in all directions into what appeared like infinity…and, of course, this strange, bottomless pit.

Dropping like a stone, she felt like her fall lasted for hours, but in real time it was just a few seconds. She felt little wind resistance, only a mild breeze that whooshed around her, and that made the free-fall just a tiny bit less scary.

Then everything changed all at once. Below her in the void was some light.

Her drop was slowing rapidly as an intense gust pushed upward from beneath her feet as if to help break her fall, acting as a brake. Her arms and legs cavorted about as the air twisted her around like a spinning top.

She glanced down below once again to see what was lying beneath her feet, and she swore she could make out a bunch of trees in the distance. The darkness all around her was disappearing as a crescent moon glowed above her head, far away. It looked a lot like the moon Professor Tinzy kept talking about from his previous journeys. She’d never seen such a gigantic object hanging in the sky, but she had heard a few strange stories of entire worlds that floated out somewhere in the great beyond.

She looked down once more, and then, PLOOSH! She shut her eyes tight.

She landed with the softest of thuds on a cushion of moist green leaves. Then she opened her eyes momentarily. The light all around was a lovely midnight blue, and she knew it was night where she was. Trees surrounded her everywhere, and thousands of leaves, maybe even millions, lay scattered all about her. Another batch of leaves fell on top of her as she sank into the soft undergrowth. The leaves nearly covered her entire body, effectively concealing her in this lush green canopy of the forest.

Then there was nothing. Her eyes closed, and she graciously succumbed to peace as her fear and exhilaration gave way to sleep while she lay there alone in the forest.

Little did she know that she was about to face the greatest challenge of her young life. When she returned home from her journey to a faraway land, she would be able to either condemn her own kind… or to help liberate them from a meticulously cultivated threat now spreading in the hearts and minds of those who would unleash their hidden desire to enslave their own kind.

Princess Sallina had hardly any idea how dangerous those she once trusted could be. How the darkest of thoughts often took on an existence of their own, as they found fertile ground to root in those who were easily susceptible to the allure of false lies and promises. These lies and promises were often delivered with the utmost conviction.

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Chapter 2

Eight weeks and three days before Princess Sallina’s epic rollercoaster ride through the stars, another important event had taken place on Starpoint.

That was the day the wisest unicorn heads of the kingdom chose to gather for a secret council session of Unimages to discuss the future of their lands, as well as an impending threat that could destroy their planet and all who lived there.

The meeting had convened at the Royal Castle of Starpoint, situated right in the centre of the kingdom. Technically, Starpoint was the only proper city of the unicorns, with all other unicorns living together harmoniously in the many villages dotting the land, as they had done for many centuries. But as happens so often in places that have enjoyed continued peace and a carefree co-existence, things were all about to drastically change—and not in a good way.

The great meeting room of the castle wasn’t at that point used all that often. Even though it was the most important meeting room in the entire royal domain, it wasn’t even a quarter of the size of the official grand meeting room, where almost all of the royal functions were held, and it wasn’t even in a nicer part of the castle. It was in fact located in one of the smaller castle turrets, and there were numerous steep and uneven steps that one had to ascend in order to get up there, which put most unicorns off ever using it. It had, over the years, become a dusty and largely unoccupied space that in all truthfulness served little practical purpose for the ordinary citizens and nobles of Starpoint.

But centuries ago, there had been stories—by now, long forgotten—of what had occurred within these ancient walls of Starpoint, and how a much darker world had risen from seemingly nowhere to dramatically alter the lives of all unicorns in the city and beyond. Stories had been passed on relating how it had taken nearly an entire century to find the courage and means to bring peace and tranquillity back to this land and its living creatures, particularly these magnificent unicorns, who had for a long while forgotten their truest and kindest ways.

Considering that the room had no fewer than three hundred eighty-four steps leading to it, its main occupants were small rats and spiders who built their nests and cobwebs there, going about their business pretty much uninterrupted. But what better place was there to hold an important and secret meeting than in a room most unicorns avoided?

Of course, there was also the fact that not even one of the great Unimages was under one hundred years of age. This may sound like a lot of years, but in human terms they were equivalent to only about thirty-five years old or so. In fact, a hundred is hardly an age at all when one considers a unicorn is able to live for over three hundred years, especially if they take very good care of themselves. (Just for the record, the oldest unicorn ever reached the ripe old age of three hundred and sixty-one years before passing away.)

Back to the secret meeting.

Sitting around the giant, horseshoe-shaped conference table were all the illustrious Unimages (at least, all those who could be bothered to ascend the three hundred eighty-four steps). Standing at the podium in front of them was the equally illustrious and distinguished Professor Tinzy, who in Starpoint was also known as the great Unimage Tinzy.

Professor Tinzy loved teaching more than anything else and was also one of the main faculty members of Starpoint School, a seat of learning for only the most gifted unicorn children in all Starpoint. There were, of course, several schools in Starpoint, to support a population of more than three hundred and thirty-two thousand unicorns and their many offspring, but Starpoint High School—or Starhigh, as it was sometimes called—was the most famous academic institution of them all. It was also the school whereby tradition the children of the royal family were always educated, Princess Sallina being one of them.

She happened to be a famous and popular student in Professor Tinzy’s class, and she always looked forward to his informative and often lively lectures. The grey-bearded and always-distinguished Professor Tinzy taught several subjects at Starhigh School, but Sallina’s all-time favourite class was history because he had a way of making stories of the past feel so exciting and real, as if those events from distant times had only just happened yesterday.

However, on this occasion, Professor Tinzy was addressing no ordinary class, but a meeting held in the presence of no less than her majesty Queen Noony of Starpoint herself…who also happened to be Princess Sallina’s strict and resourceful mother.

“Ahem.” Professor Tinzy cleared his throat, his grey hoof supporting his chin as he stood on his powerful hind legs at the podium and adjusted them for the best standing position. He studied the Unimages seated before him and then Queen Noony, who sat at the apex of the table.

The Mages were of all different shapes, sizes, and colours. Unicorns in their diversity had become completely integrated centuries ago, and their varied looks and colours were sources of appreciation and marvel, rather than reasons to segment and segregate. One of the unwritten laws of Starpoint was that all unicorns were created equal (although truth be told, there were a few who felt they were significantly more equal than others, as you will find out).

Professor Tinzy cleared his throat once more and then blurted out, “This terrible meteor is unfortunately heading directly for us, and we simply cannot stop it!” He had considered a gentler, more gradual introduction but never quite worked out how to make the bad news sound less alarming than it was. He pointed towards the centre of the room as the Queen and Unimages looked at each other with bemusement.

A three-dimensional image instantly appeared in the centre, depicting a strange object that appeared to be hurtling through space. In the not-so-far-off distance was what looked like their planet (known as the Universe because the unicorns believed only their planet existed and the rest was like window dressing in the billions of bodies of outer space) and capital—Starpoint. The image showed the object hurtling along its trajectory directly toward their homes, and it looked like the projectile was most likely going to crash somewhere near the city of Starpoint itself.

As the Unimages and Queen Noony studied the moving images with terror and wonder, they could see that Starpoint would soon be engulfed by gigantic flames, and then their wonderful world would crack apart, burn up, and disappear into a smoulder of dark ashes.

There was a stunned silence in the room as the terrifying images slowly faded away to nothing and the hologram slowly vanished.

Now, while the room remains stunned, would be a very good time to introduce you to the main members of the Starpoint Council. And where better to begin than with Her Royal Highness Queen Noony?

Queen Noony was the presiding queen of Starpoint and had been for almost seventy-nine years. The Queen was a very elegant-looking unicorn, adorned with several layers of fancy clothing that befitted someone of such an exalted position, and she wore a small but impressive crown that rested firmly on top of her venerable and weathered head.

This was an ornamental crown that she wore when attending official meetings, not the royal crown that stood permanently on display in the castle library behind a magically fortified, protective glass cover for all citizens to see. She hated wearing the official crown and avoided doing so as much as possible, as it was far too heavy to be in any way comfortable when resting upon her head. Fortunately, it was used only for the rarest of ceremonial occasions—which thankfully didn’t come along very often. She rarely had to climb these stairs with the crown resting upon her head.

A truly imposing figure she was, with her lush black curls that ran along her thick and equally magnificent black mane, and her bright-blue oval eyes, along with an almost golden patch of hair that stuck out on the top of her head like a mohawk and helped give her that extra-special presence befitting one of such royal ancestry. She had originally come from royal stock dating back to the very origin of the unicorns themselves, a time when only those considered to be the purest and lightest complexions could rule for many centuries.

The so-called purest blood had since been diluted by the so- many different herds of unicorns who had over the years intermixed, many having acquired gradually darker complexions, so that now being of light-skinned royal stock was something of a rarity, and certainly not something that bore any significance, unless of course one was the Queen. Sallina’s father had been a proud darker-skinned unicorn whose long lineage had its origins in the remote rural lands at the edge of the kingdom, so Sallina had a darker complexion than her mother—one that some purists who harkened back to the past would feel didn’t suit her as a member of the royal succession.

Those who were mostly pure or made themselves that way understood the importance of image and perception in society, and many of them aided the fairness of their hides with powerful magical spells. Lightness was such a close companion to brightness, and if you were light and bright in both your body and soul, you were destined to go much further than the others whom you once stood beside, and you got to secure your place in the upper echelons of modern unicorn society. Fortunately, during the years of the Queen’s reign, this obsession had become less of an issue and the attention towards attaining such physical purity had greatly diminished in importance.

To return to our meeting, Queen Noony stared impassively at Professor Tinzy, allowing herself time to process his exclamation further.

As for the council members around the table on either side of Queen Noony, there were:

Firstly, the worldly and wizened Unimage Lommunar. He was thought to be around two-hundred twenty-nine years old, but nobody knew his exact age because he didn’t wish to reveal to anyone how ancient he really was; keeping one’s age a secret was one of the unwritten roles of the civilized unicorn society. Lommunar scarcely raised an eyebrow at the news of their impending doom.

Then there was Unimage Snimminz. He was precisely one- hundred twenty-four years of age. He coughed spasmodically as he lifted a hoof to his chin and tried very hard not to reveal his concerns about the very real and disturbing danger they were in. Unimage Callindra sat next to Snimminz. She was well over two hundred fifty years old and one of the oldest unicorns in the room. Indeed, she was the second oldest Unimage in Starpoint, and more than likely to take over from Unimage Lommunar.

Her face remained totally blank, devoid of any emotion.

Unimage Callindra was one of the few Unimages of purer stock left in Starpoint who operated in high council, but even she had faced a degree of genetic dilution in her family lineage. Her face as well as her body was incredibly pale, and her hair, which was bright gold in her younger days, had turned grey. Few really saw her as she was because she had learned early on to change her level of fairness with the aid of powerful magic.

Unimage Paterline. A unicorn of around one hundred eighty years of age, he scarcely raised his eyebrow. He was by far the darkest unicorn in the room—even his eyes were as black as coal. But he was truly admired and considered to be one of the wisest unicorns in the land.

Closer to Professor Tinzy, sitting to his right, was Unimage Konstanty. He was around one hundred thirty-two or one hundred thirty-three (he had lost precise count as age wasn’t that much of a concern to him). Unimage Konstanty was the youngest-ever Unimage to have joined the Unimage Council, but he was so incredibly talented and smart that he first joined when he was scarcely even a hundred years of age. Unimage Konstanty was rumored to be of purer stock, although as is the case with many such rumors, more-educated Starpointers were quite quick to point out that there would most likely have been at least some level of dilution along the way. Right now, he was grinning without much concern at all about this potentially seismic event set to take place, but it was pretty hard to tell how he really felt about anything, as he often had a kind of clownish and mischievous look about him that concealed his true emotions and less-innocent and more-malevolent innermost thoughts.

It wasn’t any of the Unimages who broke the silence; it was Queen Noony. She briefly cleared her throat before speaking with gentle but firm authority.

“So, what happens when this thing eventually hits us in our homes?”

Professor Tinzy’s eyes scanned the room. “Oh, nothing actually, my Queen.”

Queen Noony beamed, and her muscles relaxed just a little. “Oh, thank goodness. You had us worried for a moment. I was starting to feel unibumps all over my back.”

She slumped back into her royal chair as a wave of relief swept over her.

“Because nothing will be able to survive this monumental event,” Professor Tinzy muttered, almost not wanting to speak the words out loud.

“What—what was that?” Queen Noony asked with a renewed sense of alarm. “Speak up, Professor, I couldn’t quite make out what you said.”

Professor Tinzy blurted out, more loudly this time round, “Ehmmm… nothing can survive this meteor! We will all simply perish; every single one of us will be taken and cease to exist almost instantaneously. In fact, everything will disappear around us. Our lives will no longer exist in Starpoint or beyond. In fact, pretty much all life as we know it will simply not happen. So, when I say, ‘Nothing will happen,’ I mean… after this meteor hits, there will be nothing to happen. Ever.”

“Wait a moment.” Queen Noony raised a hoof in sudden defiance. “Are you telling me that everything will simply die because of this darned meteor heading our way?”

“Yes, that’s precisely what I’m telling you, my Queen.”

That almost seemed like an insult levelled directly towards the Queen, but everyone in the room knew that Professor Tinzy had a way of using words a little more recklessly and flippantly than most others, and he didn’t mean anything underhanded or out of turn by being incredibly direct and to the point.

“Oh no, this has almost certainly ruined my dinner tonight and will most likely affect my sleep for the rest of this week,” Unimage Paterline mumbled under his breath, shaking his head with dissatisfaction.

“What did you say, Unimage Paterline?” asked Queen Noony.

“Oh, noth—nothing, I was just saying something to myself.

It’s already forgotten.”

Queen Noony stood up sternly on her hind legs and stretched her long and almost chubby equine body to its full height. The other Unimages were taken aback by her size and rotundity as she addressed them more formally than she had before. She was, after all, no ordinary unicorn in her magnitude; she was in fact a good third larger than most of those present, and quite round due to her intense love for all kinds of food—in fact, anything that was tasty and, especially, sweet. She was the Queen, and nobody ever dared tell her that she was more than a little bit plump for even her large and majestic size.

“I simply don’t understand your point. Are you telling me, Professor Tinzy, that our world is soon about to come to an end?”

“Yes, I’m afraid that’s exactly what I’m telling you…unless…”

“Unless what? Speak up, for goodness’ sake…I’m sure we’re all keen to hear!”

“Well, I’m not sure, my Queen, but there may be a possibility that we can avert a terrible catastrophe, but it’s more than a bit uncertain and more than a bit unclear as to how it can be accomplished,” Professor Tinzy replied meekly.

“There’d better be a really good solution to this predicament!” Queen Noony exclaimed loudly. “If we are about to face such imminent doom, someone had better come up with a solid working plan on how we can avert such a meteoric disaster from ever happening.”

“That’s very good advice, my Queen,” Unimage Konstanty spoke up for the first time. “Meteoric it appears to be, in all senses of the word, and for my liking all a bit too fantastic and incredible. This is bordering on an epic fantasy; it is something that has most likely been designed to entertain us, and to divert our thoughts from more pressing matters that are at hoof. I suggest we shouldn’t try to pretend to be so clever or funny, making up such silly monstrosities as a formidable meteor when no such entity is likely to exist. It sounds like a literal flight of fancy.”

“I wasn’t trying to be clever or funny or fancy about this, Unimage Konstanty,” Queen Noony retorted sharply. “We’re talking about what could be the end of our world—we are being warned of a doomsday that may soon be upon us all. This is not something to trivialize with your light-hearted humor, even if under normal circumstances it might be construed as being funny.”

“To answer your question, my Queen, yes, we are working on a plan of sorts,” Professor Tinzy said. “All hope is not yet lost.”

“‘Of sorts.’” Unimage Paterline guffawed. “Seems a bit vague for such a grievous situation, wouldn’t you say, my good Unimage?”

“You see, my Queen,” the Professor continued, ignoring him, “everyone present already knows that all the magic in Starpoint runs on this wonderful stuff we call Pinny, and we used to have lots of it in storage in the past. But what they don’t all know is that our Pinny supply has been running dangerously down for the past few decades, and fresh supplies have virtually ceased to come through.”

“I thought our Pinny supply was perfectly fine, Unimage Tinzy. This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Queen Noony snapped, then realized she might have overdone it a bit.

“Well, it’s not so fine, my Queen,” Unimage Snimminz countered. “We’ve already shut down two of our Alicorns due to limitations in our Pinny supply, and the three remaining ones are currently running at half power at best due to a lack of sufficient Pinny. We were going to bring this matter up with our Council before, but until now it wasn’t so much of a concern, as we could run on even just one Alicorn for a few years if needs must and it were under normal circumstances.”

Snimminz pointed the small, craggy white stick he was holding firmly in his hoof. A blue beam shot out and created a holographic image of Starpoint in the middle of the horseshoe table where the image of the meteor had been.

The city of Starpoint was called Starpoint because it was shaped like a shiny star. At the end of each of its brightly illuminated points, which were especially noticeable at night, stood a mighty Alicorn citadel that helped to radiate powerful magical energy for all the city’s inhabitants to use. Each Alicorn citadel was shaped much like the unicorn’s horn from which the powerful magical energy of Pinny radiated.

Pinny was an almost-invisible magical essence that had abundantly covered the whole of Starpoint. It worked in much the same way as humans understand radio waves, transmitting power and providing all unicorns with the ability to access their intrinsic magic and manipulate it at will, depending on their skill. Pinny, long ago known as Painubti in its original form, had always been a bit of a mysterious substance, although it was known to power almost all the magic in all the lands.

But over the centuries, the supply of Pinny had begun to dwindle, and the unicorns had gathered together a few centuries earlier to create the great city of Starpoint and its five gigantic Alicorns to power all their magic in a more confined space with what remained of their Pinny supply, which helped to ration its usage.

“Even if we have only our three remaining Alicorns to radiate Pinny, our Alicorns ought to be sufficient to protect us from this horrible object, oughtn’t they?” Queen Noony queried.

“I’m afraid it will not do,” said Professor Tinzy matter-of- factly.

It was just at this moment that everyone sensed something else was taking place just beyond the chamber. It had been heavily raining all day long, and now as the evening approached, the weather outside had intensified with the onset of a bright and fierce lightning storm, which was joined by a fierce downpour of rain. A sudden flash of light shot out beyond the chamber, closely followed by the sound of not-too-distant thunder.

Queen Noony looked for a few moments as though she was frozen in thought. Whether it was deep thought or some sense of trepidation that temporarily arrested the functioning of her muscles and nervous system, nobody quite knew. But she had a habit of becoming very still, and many believed that this was when she was at her very best, as she carefully mulled over any given situation and sought to find some kind of resolution to a particular dilemma.

Then Queen Noony opened her mouth as an idea started to materialize in her mind. “What if we can get all five of our Alicorns working again to thwart this danger somehow?”

“Then it might be possible to deflect the meteor away from Starpoint, or perhaps we can even halt it completely in its tracks,” replied the Professor.

The collective sigh of relief was quite audible.

“I think we’re taking this matter far too seriously,” Unimage Konstanty piped up. “Depletion of our magical resources, the dwindling supply of Pinny in Starpoint, an end-of-the-world threat… isn’t this all going a bit too far? Am I the only one who thinks that all this is all utter bunkum, sheer nonsense? Professor Tinzy is well known for his more-than-occasional absentmindedness, and I think he may have completely lost his entire brain somewhere, perhaps left it behind on one of his recent journeys.”

The others were too cautious to react, and nobody quite knew who was going to speak next. Then sudden laughter erupted from somewhere in the chamber.

It was Unimage Callindra, who had broken into a chortling fit. Everyone else soon followed, though they laughed less confidently and more than a little nervously…except for Queen Noony and Professor Tinzy, who were both shocked. They stood there in utter amazement, failing to see what was so terribly amusing.

“I’m afraid that denial won’t make such a threat disappear. The prophecies of the scroll of Tinzin have never been wrong before, and they even warned us of such an event posing an existential threat, that was set to take place around this time period!” Professor Tinzy exclaimed above the roar of laughter still filling the chamber.

His forceful declaration brought the echoing fits of laughter to an abrupt halt. The forced merriment was replaced by a wave of murmurs that echoed around the room as the Unimages whispered to each other.

Queen Noony stood there silently, waiting for some kind of sign that she should move the conversation on as she pondered the gravity of this threat, which she believed was all too real. Even though Unimage Konstanty had dismissed this situation as being no more than a figment of Unimage Tinzy’s overactive imagination, she knew a lot better than to trivialize something as potentially dangerous as this. Unicorns were known to be somewhat cautious creatures by nature, but they broke the mould with Konstanty, who was unusual in his ability to trivialize almost everything he came across and take things in his stride in the most relaxed and uninterested manner possible.

“What time frame do we have for this meteor to destroy us?” Queen Noony asked the Professor.

Professor Tinzy didn’t respond straightaway. He calculated silently in his head for a few moments before he spoke.

“It’s hard to say exactly, your Majesty. I cannot provide you with a very clear timetable. I reckon sometime under a year; it could even be a bit longer, maybe,” the Professor replied. “Sixteen months on the outside.”

This got a few more off-the-cuff remarks muttered between the Unimages, this time less cautiously, as if it didn’t matter that much if they were overheard.

“So, now it appears we need to have copious amounts of luck as well,” Unimage Paterline remarked cursorily.

“Well, the bottom line is,” Professor Tinzy insisted, “that we cannot ignore the fact we desperately need to replenish our stocks of Pinny in the near future. There is no mistake; we must go out and find more!”

“So where do we go to do that?” Unimage Paterline challenged Professor Tinzy.

The room fell silent.

“We have been discreetly sending out search parties for some years now. We’ve been travelling across the many lands, without success thus far. However, it’s not all bad news. I did come across some potential Pinny in one of my recent travels. It’s just that—” he paused.

Sudden gasps of excitement filled the chamber. Unimage Konstanty squinted to focus on what the professor was about to reveal.

“As everyone here is fully aware, I do occasionally use magic to travel to far-off, new places. I have travelled to one such place that may have some Pinny, and it’s possible that I can travel out there again and acquire some for us.”

Queen Noony sat back down slowly and began to smile, all her nervousness starting to disappear.

“Well then, my dear Unimage Tinzy. Looks like you have given yourself the most vital and pressing task of our times. I hereby command you to depart immediately and go find us some more Pinny from this faraway land, wherever it may be. We will then hopefully be able to power up all our Alicorns once again, returning them to their full capacity, and then we will find a way of using our powerful magic to successfully halt this terrible meteor and its menace.”

All the Unimages, apart from Konstanty, sat back in their chairs and relaxed just a little.

“Your Majesty, I will of course do my very utmost,” the Professor promised, and then made a low bow. “This journey will not be without its peril, but I will find a way to overcome any obstacles. Please don’t ask me where this place is, as I simply cannot tell you. I must keep this strange land a closely guarded secret, for reasons I cannot yet explain to you all. But should I somehow fail, I will ensure that the vital details are made known to you, and then you too can work out a way to solve the puzzle of this very great predicament.”

This left the Unimages feeling somewhat baffled and wondering what all this secrecy was about, and why Unimage Tinzy was so keen to go it alone on this mission for which he had volunteered. Fortunately, this was Unimage Professor Tinzy standing at the podium, and as it was known that he often didn’t make much sense when he spoke, they simply went along with the oddness of it for now.

Queen Noony struck her front hooves together as she applauded this new moment in Starpoint’s history.

The others did precisely the same, apart from Unimage Konstanty. He sat there brooding silently, refusing to join in on the excitement of the moment. His gaze burrowed deep into the eyes of Professor Tinzy, as if staring at him directly would somehow reveal the secret location of this abundant supply of Pinny.

“If there is any Pinny out there, it’s going to be mine and I will use it in the best way that I can and by any means I can muster,” Konstanty kept repeating privately to himself.

There was a darkness that had found a home in Konstanty’s heart and soul, and it slowly and relentlessly ate away at all that was once good in him. Often, those beset by the evilest of desires start off with the noblest of intentions. The hardest life lesson of all is that every one of us is susceptible, as these wicked thoughts and ideas early on find a way to disguise their true intentions in the very things we cherish, such as our freedoms and individual ways. Once allowed a voice inside our thoughts, they twist the truth and change how we see the world.

It is often far too late by the time those who have been taken realise they’ve been duped, and their once-noble intentions have been perverted. Even worse, once one does come to this realisation, it’s extremely difficult to change paths, as doing so means accepting having been fooled not just once, not twice, but so many times. One truly wonders how many terrible outcomes could have been averted in the course of history if only those who turned out to be perpetrators of evil and corruption could have accepted their failures early on and acknowledged the simple truths that we all share.

Chapter 3

The thirteen-year-old girl who was really a unicorn stood outside the gates of Doberry School, staring at the school’s entrance… with her human eyes!

Everything felt so strange!

So much had happened since she’d learned about the secret council meeting of Unimages and the extent of the mission Professor Tinzy was then about to go on. Sallina was special to him as she was the future heir to the throne, so he knew he could confide in her. He had trusted Sallina with the mission details, on the condition that she kept them to herself and revealed them to the council only if he didn’t return after a month’s absence.

More than five weeks had passed, with no word from the Professor. It had worried the princess, so much so that she decided to travel to this place referred to as “Earth” to find out what was going on. Before leaving, she had passed the information to her close friend Numi, instructing them to pass it on to the Unimages should she fail to return. Her friend, of course, thought she was completely mad, but Sallina felt she just had to go.

There had been a whole process in those weeks since she’d arrived, in which she had to learn where she was and understand enough to be able to attend school, and where her newly acquired mother helped her to find her way… but that is something we can look back on at another time, as our story now shifts to the secondary school where Sallina is going to make a remarkable discovery.

Clearly, she hadn’t bargained for having to join an educational establishment in such an unfamiliar world. However, being transformed into a human! With light-brown, tanned skin! And here she was now, about to attend school somewhere she couldn’t have even dreamt of not so long ago!

She wasn’t going because she needed the schooling, but because her foster mother had said there was a professor teaching in this particular school who sounded a lot like the ‘man’ (actually a unicorn) for whom Sallina was searching.

Taking a deep breath, Sallina started toward the front entrance, surrounded by other children all dressed in the same school uniform—a bright-crimson blazer with a matching, slightly darker-crimson skirt, black leggings, and black shoes. So far, she had no books, only a notebook, which she carried in a small shoulder bag.

As she passed by a couple of giggling girls of a similar age, she noticed a boy in the distance watching her carefully. She observed him discreetly for a few moments but didn’t recognize him. He appeared to be a similar age as she was when she appeared on Earth… which made her feel so very young, because as a unicorn she was already nearing the important milestone of fifty years—a significant time, as it was the unicorn equivalent of reaching early adulthood.

Sallina entered the school and made her way toward her first class. She wasn’t exactly sure where it was, but she had received some directions from her foster mother, who had printed them out for her, and she had memorized them.

After a few turns in the corridor, she found herself arriving at a classroom, which was already filling with students of about her apparent human age.

Sallina walked into the room and found a seat, where she sat herself down.

“I’m Becky,” murmured a red-headed girl with a collection of freckles.

“I’m Sallina. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Becky grinned, then exclaimed, “Shall we be friends? It’ll be fun.”

“Of course! We certainly shall.”

Becky shifted over to sit next to Sallina as their teacher arrived. Sallina quickly turned her attention to him. Was this her Professor Tinzy? The man walked in the shuffling manner that was akin to Professor Tinzy’s trademark gait. Professor Tinzy always looked like he had been distracted by an important random thought that needed to be answered instantly in a sudden explosion of what seemed like incoherent muttering… it was incoherent to others, that is, for the Professor would often smile to himself after each mutter as if pleased with the answer he had just given to himself.

The professor made his way to the blackboard and started to write his name on it. Sallina watched, riveted.

“Well, then. I am Professor Brian Walters,” he said assertively as a few students filtered in, taking their seats. “And I am privileged to be here teaching this class. In just a few moments, I’m going to be calling out your names. If I state your name, raise your hand.”

Professor Walters rummaged through his briefcase and produced a small notebook that contained the students’ names. As he leafed through the notebook, he suddenly had an urge to sneeze. “Achoo!” He sneezed loudly… then again.

How very odd, he thought to himself.

He normally didn’t sneeze in his classroom or at school. And this wasn’t like a sneeze he would get as a precursor to a cold; this one was entirely different. He had suffered from such sneezes for his entire life, and he knew exactly what things or creatures would most likely bring them on. His sneezes were usually directly associated with the presence of animals— usually wild animals, as opposed to a domestic cat or dog. He glanced around the room, but he couldn’t see any wild animals about, only children, and being in the presence of children didn’t usually make him sneeze.

“Hmm,” he muttered to himself. “How curious.”

Glancing back at his notebook, he called out the first name. “Tara Smith…are we here, Miss Smith?” A hand slowly went up in the back of the classroom.

“Miss Lindon…is there a Miss Lindon about?”

Princess Sallina raised her hand. Becky gave her a friendly smile as Professor Walters nodded, then…

“Achoo!” Once again, he let out a loud, fierce sneeze, startling a few children in the front of the class. “I’m so sorry. Now where were we?”

Princess Sallina looked around the room. This wasn’t at all what she was expecting. If anything, this was likely going to be far too boring, and the other students were nothing like the schoolchildren she would normally mix with back home on Starpoint. Also, once the Professor had opened his mouth and spoken, she suspected he wasn’t the professor for whom she had been searching.

“Okay,” said the professor after reading all the names, “today we are going to talk about…”

As the professor continued, Sallina quickly realised that this was not even a smidgeon of Professor Tinzy standing before her, dully pontificating, and she began to wonder what in the world she was doing in such a strange and humdrum place. It was clear that there was no inkling of magic in a classroom like this; there were no dreams being woven to create something beautiful and striking out of thin air, only a steady deluge of facts and information about how these creatures called human beings lived on this rather grey planet called Earth.

How very dull and tedious this world seemed, and how very uninteresting this class was to these poor children, who had to endure it no matter what. The human children had so little idea of what was going on around them beyond the narrowest streams of information being channelled into their tiny minds, and clearly, they had little interest in absorbing what appeared to be irrelevant and useless knowledge. They were already looking bored to death, and no doubt they would traverse an entire existence with no appreciation of all the marvels and wonders taking place around them, and the incredible power of magic that surrounded all who were alive.

For the first time, she began to appreciate how crucial magic was to everything she knew and cared for in the world, and she began to comprehend the actual worth of those precious, hard- earned kernels of wisdom she had acquired on properly using and controlling magic. It was only the kindest and wisest of professors who were able to guide her down this path, and now she was starting to realise that such precious knowledge and wisdom could be the difference between life and death for all her kind.

She couldn’t help but start watching the clock instead of Professor Walters as the lesson dragged on with painful slowness. Lunch could not come quickly enough, but after what seemed a unicorn eternity (which is a very, very long time!), the lunch bell finally rang, and it was like music to her ears.

In the cafeteria, Sallina found herself standing in a slow- moving line, sliding a tray along a rack behind a queue of other students. In the front of the line, she saw that peculiar boy again, though now he looked strangely familiar. She had a nagging feeling she knew him from somewhere, but she could not quite place him.

Then it dawned on her. Perhaps he looked familiar because he was in fact a unicorn child from Starpoint! But how could that be? She just as quickly dismissed this from her mind. She knew of nobody besides the Professor and herself who had ever made this long trip to this strange world.

Suddenly, Princess Sallina started to feel giddy and disoriented. The boy she thought she knew but couldn’t name crossed the cafeteria holding a tray of food, glancing over toward her every so often with what appeared more than idle curiosity. Then Sallina lost her footing, went limp, and slipped backwards into a stranger directly behind her.

Rudy was a couple of years older than she, and he was wearing a slightly mean, annoyed expression. He wasn’t pleased when Sallina collided into him.

“Eh, watch it there, you fool. What are you doing, bumping into me?” he blurted unkindly. “Are you looking for a fight? If you are, I’ll give you one.”

Sallina regained her footing and turned to him. “I’m very sorry, this was entirely my mistake. I meant no harm.”

After gathering her balance and regaining her senses, she approached the checkout. She noticed the paltry selection of food on her tray – a solitary apple, a small bottle of water, and a little tub of strawberry yogurt that claimed to be low in fat. The cashier gave her a disinterested look and scanned her school ID badge. She was heading away to find a table when she noticed an older man standing across the room, chatting with a student accompanying him.

She was immediately entranced by him, so much so she almost bumped straight into another girl holding a tray, who deftly swerved around her in the last second and threw her a quick glance of annoyance before carrying on to her table.

Sallina’s heart began to race. This older man appeared normal in size but was a lot older than the other professors she had seen so far in the school. He had a patchy grey goatee and long grey hair, tied into a ponytail. He had a sharp, craggy nose upon which rested a pair of silver glasses, and he was wearing a dark-grey waistcoat that matched his facial hair perfectly.

This is him! she thought. For sure! This is exactly how Professor Tinzy would look if he were a human being!

She was absolutely certain of it.

She fixed her gaze on the professor and waited for him to finish his conversation with the student. As he turned away and headed out of the cafeteria, Sallina followed him. She hurried across the room and bolted through the doors, not noticing the sign clearly stating no food was permitted to be taken out of the cafeteria.

The door swung open as she pushed her way through it, but before she could get her bearings and work out which way the ponytailed professor had gone, she walked straight into Professor Walters, who was hurrying along the same corridor.

CLANG!

The inevitable collision made her lose her grip on the tray, which fell and landed with a loud clatter as it hit the hard concrete floor. Her yogurt, the apple, and the bottle of water bounced off the tray on impact.

She looked down in dismay and then up at a rather annoyed Professor Walters, while over his shoulder she could see the man who looked like Professor Tinzy disappearing down the corridor, out of sight.

“I’m so very sorry, this was entirely my fault,” Sallina said apologetically. She looked down again, and Professor Walters let out a sudden sneeze whilst holding onto his nose.

“Let me help you,” he said as she bent down to retrieve her scattered morsels. “You know, Sallina—that’s your name, isn’t it? —lunch needs to be consumed in the cafeter—”

He looked back up toward her with her bottle of water and apple in hand to find she was already gone.

He glanced down the corridor, then turned again as the boy that Sallina had been watching earlier picked up the strawberry yogurt and held it out. Professor Walters let out another sudden sneeze, hastily covering his nose with his hand.

The boy—whose name was Szymon—lifted the tray and put the tub of yogurt on it. The professor took the tray without hesitating and put the drink and apple back as well.

As Sallina raced away—finding it a weird experience to run on just two legs!—she glanced back to see Szymon, along with Professor Walters, disappearing behind her. What an odd- looking boy, she thought. His eyes were emerald-green, he had fair hair that sat like a mop on top of his head, and his skin was so very light coloured, it almost hurt her eyes.

“She must have been in an awful hurry,” Szymon said, and he too rushed off in Sallina’s direction.

“Wait a sec, now—now hold on!” Professor Walters stammered as he stood there with Princess Sallina’s tray in his hands.

Princess Sallina made her way down the corridor, took a right turn, and was about to take another turn when she caught sight of the man, taking a drink at a water fountain. She eagerly jogged right up to him, not considering how unusual her actions might appear if he didn’t recognize her at once and wasn’t in fact the unicorn she was seeking.

“Sir… Professor… hey!” Sallina called as she came to a halt right behind him.

The man looked up, swallowed the water he had in his mouth, and said, “Yes, who are you?” The words were accompanied by a mild gurgle.

“Professor, oh my gosh, I can’t believe that it’s really you. It is, isn’t it? You’re him!” Princess Sallina blurted as he watched her curiously through his silver-rimmed spectacles.

“Excuse me a moment young lady, do we know each other?

I don’t recall having ever come across you before.”

Sallina immediately turned as she sensed someone else approaching. It was Szymon, running up to them.

“Professor Walters is looking for you, Sallina. He has your tray of food!” Szymon stammered.

“Sorry, what?” Sallina looked confusedly at Szymon. “I don’t know you.”

“Looks like it’s a double case of mistaken identity,” the professor remarked glibly. “You’d both better go on, then—it’s virtually time for your class.”

With that, the man she thought was Professor Tinzy wandered off without even as much as an indication of passing curiosity about such a strange encounter.

This really bothered Sallina, as she had tried so hard to get the professor’s attention. She glanced back at Szymon, and her expression hardened.

“Excuse me, who in the world are you? You’ve been getting in my way!”

“You know Professor Walters? I think he’s extremely allergic to us… magical creatures. Haven’t you noticed?” Szymon remarked meaningfully.

Sallina eyed Szymon carefully, her expression still stern. Then she realised the full meaning of what Szymon had just said to her.

“Now wait a second. Who are you calling magical creatures?

Do we—”

Szymon smiled wryly. He mimicked with his hand the shape of a unicorn’s horn and waited.

“Oh my! So, you’re another one from Starpoint, too? It can’t be.”

She was suddenly quite excited about the prospect of meeting another unicorn from Starpoint here on this distant and peculiar world. It had been some time since she had encountered another unicorn—since her arrival on Earth, in fact. In all those weeks, she had become used to being almost a human herself, but you can’t really get used to what you are not. How could you? It’s little wonder she felt mostly alone, and vulnerable too, in so many ways. The surprising and reassuring presence of what seemed to be another unicorn in human form brought her some welcome relief.

“You’re Princess Sallina,” Szymon exclaimed, almost proudly. “if I recall correctly…”

“Yes, I am!”

“You’re… a not-so-often-seen young royal busybody who keeps getting into trouble and causing mischief,” Szymon added unceremoniously. “We always follow your mishaps with the greatest of interest and laugh about them.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Sallina retorted. “Who are you calling a busybody and a mischief maker? There’s nothing wrong with getting things done, and I’ve achieved a whole lot of things in my young years that I’m proud of. Who are you to speak of me in such a way? You can be punished for such disrespectful behaviour to one of royal lineage.”

“I’m very sorry, my Princess. I didn’t mean anything. But we both find ourselves in unusual circumstances where our customary graces seem out of place. Let me introduce myself. I’m Junior Unimage Szymon, hailing all the way from our home of Starpoint, and I am humbly at your royal service.”

With this, he offered her a low bow of respect. It brought a warm smile to Princess Sallina’s face, although not too much, as she was used to being respected and bowed to by even junior mages like Szymon, who was almost a child. She still had half a mind to give this fake-human Szymon a proper dressing down, but she too was out of her usual comfort zone, and being so removed from her normal way of life meant she had to adjust to the situation she found herself presently in.

“I wouldn’t bother approaching that human-looking creature,” said Szymon, raising his head. “The good Professor won’t be able to recognise you no matter what you say to him. He won’t be able to recognize anyone from Starpoint. He thinks he is perfectly human, like everyone else here, and has forgotten who he really is. He is suffering from amnesia.”

This troubled Princess Sallina. “So, it is definitely him. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure until just now. That’s some consolation, at least.”

“As far as I know, my Princess. I’m pretty certain that it’s Professor Tinzy… or rather, Unimage Tinzy. My father too sits upon the magic council, so I have seen our illustrious Professor in his natural unicorn form a few times back home.”

That wasn’t exactly what Princess Sallina wanted to hear. “That’s good to know. But I am deeply troubled that he doesn’t remember who he is. This is a really unfortunate situation. No wonder we haven’t heard from him in some time now. How’s he to get back home if he doesn’t remember who he really is? He has important business here, and not knowing who he is will make it a lot harder for him to do what he has been tasked with. How will he be able to do anything at all?”

“That is a very good question, your Highness. I was thinking precisely the same thing.”

“So, who is your father?” Sallina enquired.

“My father is Unimage Konstanty, the youngest-ever Unimage on the magic council. I’m sure you must have heard of him before. Everybody knows him.”

“Oh gosh, of course I have! He’s second only to the great Unimage Lommunar. I nearly forgot. Well, well, so, you’re Unimage Konstanty’s son. That at least explains how you had the means to come here, as I thought I was the only one apart from the good Professor. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Szymon. It’s nice to come across someone who’s also from back home and knows what it feels like to have four hooves, and a horn sticking out of one’s head!”

“Likewise, your Majesty. I’m extremely pleased to meet you, Princess Sallina. It is an honour to be in your presence.”

“Oh, don’t get so formal, Szymon, we’re in the wrong place for that. The question for us, then, is what’s to be done with poor Professor Tinzy? I urgently must speak to him. It is of the utmost important—a matter of life and death.”

“You can certainly speak to him, my Princess, but you do need to be realistic about what that may accomplish. I fear Professor Tinzy will have absolutely no memory of the unicorn you are or the unicorn he in fact is, or should I say was. He may even consider us both completely crazy, to suggest that all three of us are unicorns from a faraway place. As far as he is concerned, he is an ordinary human.”