CW | Mini Event | Unicorns

Miraphy wandered around in the forest, being on her way to the city. The Island of Olde was misty and the morning was cold and wet. Everything was like it usually was. She hoped to not meet anyone of the Olde Herd today. Not that she would have anything against the horses' belief, no, she had something against the way some of them treated not-believers. She didn't want to have any complications and so made a long way around the area in which the Olde horses normally lingered.
Suddenly the young mare noticed something to her right at the corner of her eye. It was a little light, but as soon as she turned her head it was gone. Strange, she thought and shook her head. Probably she was still tired and imagined things. Yes, that had to be it. But then she noticed several lights, which she saw for real this time. They didn't look threatening. Calm, hovering blue lights, that reminded her of warm summer evenings, hovered around her. Something strange was defenitely going on here and she made a step back. This, anyway, turned out to be a mistake, because she stepped into nothingness. She pulled her leg back and turned around to see what had caused this. There, where had been solid ground a few seconds before, was now something that reminded Miraphy of the night sky. A blackness with several light dots, these blue floating orbs, millions of them. She turned around again to run towards the city, but when she turned, the other side became dark too. She looked to the ground and noticed that it had also disappeared. She fell.
Her eyes shot open and breathed hard. A nightmare. It was just a dream., she breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. The sun was shining and its golden rays warmed her. That was strange, the sun was something rare in the winter on Olde, and furthermore if the sun shone it didn't spend any warmth inthis cold time of year. She stood up and took in the forest around her. It was green and bright. Butterflies and birds flew through the air, on the ground lingered bunnies, deers and other kinds of woodland creatures. It was strange, to say the least. Miraphy had never seen such a lively forest before and it certainly wasn't the place she had fallen asleep in, the previous evening. She took in more from the scenery and then, she noticed them. Snow white horses which's beauty was undescribeable. No, not horses. Unicorns. It were unicorns! She couldn't believe her eyes and blinked several times to make sure that her eyes didn't betray her. How could that be possible? Did the unicorns return to Olde? Have they been real all this time? Now she regretted to not believe in such beautiful creatures all her life long. She turned around, and saw more of them. They were surrounding her. But not only her. She now noticed the brown stallion who stood a few meters away from her, looking as confused as she was.

---

What is – what is this? Why am I wet? From somewhere nearby, a disembodied voice let out a painful groan. It took him a few moments to realize it had been his own. “Gah,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut tight to try and keep the sunlight from slipping in through the cracks. “Ugh… my head…” he groaned, rocking a little on his side to try and make the pain go away. “Monkies and… hammers. Tap dancing on my brain. In cleats,” he commented, attempting to muster up the courage to pry his eyes open and take on the full burning wrath of the sun. Like tearing off tree sap, he told himself, trying to psych himself up. On three. One, two th—

“Ow!” he exclaimed, his eyes shooting open as a searing pain shot through his tail. He leapt to his feet and snorted, swishing his painful tail behind him. “Hey! Watch where yer hoofin’,” he advised grumpily as a pretty white figure meandered away from him. He furrowed his brow at it, then tilted his head and blinked several times. Was that a – Unicorn?

Another giggled at him as she walked past, flagging her pretty tail in his face flirtatiously as she picked herself up into a buoyant, spirited trot and joined her friend, who was tittering back at him coyly. “Ladies,” he said, raising an eyebrow in what he hoped was a manner most debonair. “I’m likin’ the horns. Very dashing. Very festive,” he told them as they let out a cheeky laugh and trotted away.

He bit down on his lower lip and frowned slightly as he tried again to rationalise the situation. What holiday is this? was the first thought to run through his mind. The second was: Where do I get me one of them horns?

He picked someone out of this strange, ethereal herd and fell into step beside them. “Hi! I’m Charlie,” he announced to the small, elderly stallion. “Where am I? Do you know the way back to the Olde Herd? I mean you guys got great digs here and all, but my Mum’s gonna kill me when she finds out I left the river on. Haha. Get it? It’s a joke. You don’t have to laugh if you don’t want to,” Charlie announced as the old stallion shot him a less than amused look and wandered off in the opposite direction. “Okay cool! Maybe later then!” Chalie called after him, watching him mutter something under his breath as he melted into the herd.

Charlie glanced around, and his eyes landed on another figure, this one different from all the rest – hornless, and standing not too far away. “Strange place, huh?” he announced to her. “You forget your horn too?”

Charlie scoffed a little bit, without much gumption as he watched a gigantic stallion strut by, with a mane long and straight and white as spiders’ webs – and began to feel a little self-conscious; but only for a moment, as the brute gave him a mildly disgusted look and meandered out of his way. He had to fight back the urge to yell something foul mannered after him. He turned his mind instead on the fact that he seemed to be surrounded in his childhood bedtime stories. “I know what you’re thinking! Those look awfully real! But that would have to mean these are actually unicorns. And that’s not possible – I mean, I guess it is, but it’s not –they’re probably aliens shaped like unicorns. Or it’s an elaborate prank set up by friends and family in order to bring two strangers closer together. Give it a minute; someone’s gonna leap out and say ‘surprise!’ in a couple minutes. Wait for it. Waaaait for it…”

He stood silently for a few seconds, looking around expectantly, waiting for his Dad to pop out of the bushes yelling ‘HAPPY ARRANGED MARRIAGE SON!’ or something equally ridiculous. When he didn’t, Charlie pushed the theory aside grudgingly. “I’d really thought that was it,” he muttered to himself, frowning. He added more loudly: “So it’s the aliens, then.”

---

The theory of aliens was as possible as any other insane idea or Miraphy's magic theory. There had to be a real, a logical, explaination to this. Since she and the stallion didn't seem to find a reasonable solution to the problem themselves, there needed to be someone else to knew more.
Miraphy looked around after a unicorn that didn't seem to watch them with the disgust of being in the presence of lower beings. She soon found one, a little mare who layed in the sunlight watching butterflies dancing over a few flowers. Miraphy trotted to her and politely lowered herself to be on eye level with the magnificent creature. "Pardon me ma'am, but could you maybe tell us where exactly we are here?", she asked as politely as she could muster. The unicorn mare watched her with surprised blue eyes. She obviously didn't notice Miraphy before. Then she laughed, it sounded like ringing bells.
"Why, you are on our land young one." the unicorn answered and went back to watching the butterflies, which also seemed to be especially beautiful here.
On their land, well that doesn't help much. The island of Olde also is the unicorns' land after all. Miraphy thought and dared to ask the unicorn again.
"So, this is still the Island of Olde, right?" She couldn't be anywhere else. It just must be the unicorns' magic that let the place look so much different. But the alabaster mare shook her head. "No, it certainly isn't. This land here is beyond the borders of Chevalin." The unicorn hoped that this would be the last question the young mare would ask. She wanted her peace.
Miraphy slowly went backwards, and then turned and walked back to the brown stallion.
"The unicorn said that we are in a land beyond the borders of Chevalin, which makes no sense at all.", she said puzzled and thought for a bit, then she sighed. "How did you get here? Do you remember anything?" Maybe she could find a clue when putting all information, they both had, together.

---

Charlie watched as the painted mare beside him seemed to genuinely consider his theory.  And then, without another word, she picked up her hooves and left. He furrowed his brow at her quizzically for a moment, and then, deciding not to be left behind and be exposed to the smugness of afore mentioned muscular fiend of a stallion, he took off after her. He hung back a little bit as she talked to some unicorn lady.

“What’s cookin’ good lookin’? I’m Charlie,” he announced pleasantly enough, addressing neither in particular but both at large. “Where am I?” He’d never really been one for carefully disguised messages, or flawless social graces. He’d tried being eloquent and articulate before, but it hadn’t worked out so well. “You’re not an alien, are you?” he asked flatly, keeping his voice down in what he considered was an attempt to keep anyone from getting insulted. “It’s okay if you are; we just sorta wanna know, you know? Unless you wanna suck our brains out through your horns, in which case, not cool.”

He frowned a little when she mentioned that they were ‘in our land’. The heck was that supposed to mean. “Kinda vague…” he muttered under his breath – and before he could offend her with a witty quip about GPS coordinates and the position of the stars, he turned around and left. He bit down on his tongue as he went, perhaps a little too hard. Shut up, Charlie, he told himself, watching the rest of the two mares discussion from a few meters away. Keep your sarcasm to yourself. They can stab you. And probably shish kabab you with their fire breath. No wait! That’s dragons. Half the danger gone already!

As the mare returned to him to share her news, Charlie’s eyes rested on the lounging unicorn, tracing the butterflies’ paths with her horn. “What the hell is everyone on?” he muttered, then jerked his eyes back at his companion as he realised she’d asked him a question. “Hm? Oh, no idea. I was chasing this firefly, and then I hit my head on a rock and passed out. How awesome is that?” he asked, a dopy grin on his face. “Hey! As long as we're here: you wanna have some fun?” he asked, and before she had time to answer he darted off towards the smug looking stallion, flashing his pearly whites at a group of fillies in the most irritating manner possible.

“Hey you!” Charlie shouted at him, prancing back and forth excitedly as his tail lashed like a whip behind him. The stallion turned to look at him, an irritated expression on his perfect brown eyes. “Yeah you! The one with the face that looks like the wrong end of a beaver! I just wanted to ask: were you born that ugly, or did it just develop over time?” he asked with a haughty laugh as the stallion’s huge nostrils flared. He looked back at his companion, a grin across his muzzle. “See? Fun!” he announced.

---

Miraphy was shocked by the stallion's idea of having fun. Insulting others certainly wasn't any fun for her and she kept her distance. Whatever trouble he would bring himself in with this, she didn't want to partake in it.
She never really believed in unicorn her whole life long, thought of them as a nice fairy tale to put little foals to sleep. But if she learned one thing from the stories then that: Unicorns were very noble and respected creatures. Appearing in front of them in such a respectless manner like the stallion did was something that left Miraphy stand where she was and stare at him as if he just would have said that he would jump from a cliff. "Are you insane!?", she asked in an uncomprehending tone. She quickly trotted to the angered unicorn stallion and tried to clean up this mess. Also when she could lead the unicorn's anger on herself with this. It went against her intent to keep herself out of it, and she disliked this a lot. But there was no turning back now.
"I am so very sorry for this, sir. He seems to be a little confused with this whole situation and didn't mean any disrespect. We just want to know how to get home to our own island, the Island of Olde, again.", Miraphy said. It was hard for her to speak in such a polite manner due to her inexperience of speaking to others at all, but she was content with her wording for the moment. The unicorn seemed to calm down a bit at this, just enough to just give an angry snort and trot away instead of leading his anger towards them. At least he didn't stab both of us. Miraphy thought and let out a sigh of relief. She then turned to the stallion. "Listen, this is obviously not our island and we have no idea what exactly is going on. So we should act respectful and polite to get help from these creatures. How on Chevalin can you think that they will give us any help when you insult them!? I don't know about you, but I plan to go home as soon as possible, so please consider to choose a more polite way of speaking or leave the fancy talking to me." She defenitely was not amused that the stallion sabotaged her plan to get home again safely. She took a deep breath and sighed again, to calm down. "What is your name anyway?", she asked with a smile and a far less enraged way of speaking.

---

“Oh, common, that guy was asking for it,” Charlie retorted, glaring at the stallion who looked as though he was going to murder him. “Just because you have a horn doesn’t mean you get to be a dick, Dick!” he said loudly, so everyone in the immediate vicinity could hear. Charlie snorted a huff of air defiantly through his wide nostrils and stood his ground firmly as the stallion turned around and ignored him. That was even more insulting. This guy was one hell of a pompous arse.

The mare cut in with apologetic words that tottaly and completely ruined his Braveheart-esque stand, but Charlie didn’t mind really. She was blinded by the pretty horns and glittering coats or something. “I mean every disrespect,” Charlie told the stallion, just to make things clear. “You’re not better than me because you have a horn, bro! You gotta earn my respect,” Charlie informed him, and watched irately as the other stallion ignored him and turned away with an angry huff. “Hey! Where you going?! Aren’t we gonna duel or something!” Charlie called after him, then tossed his forelock stubbornly and dismissively. “Yeah, whatever. You’re not real anyway; this is all a dream or something similar,” he commented more quietly, furrowing his brow at the mismatched eyes that stared at him, possibly accusingly.

“Bollocks!” Charlie told her. “I’m not insulting them, I’m insulting him. I’m not being respectful to some guy who treats me like dirt, thanks.” He frowned at the stallion, but didn’t pursue him. Charlie’s game was over, and the other had won. For his part, the haughty unicorn was watching him with a taunting grin on his face, as though he knew he’d come out on top at the end. “Douche bag,” he muttered.

He blinked down at the mare, as though only just remembering she was there when she asked his name. “I’m Charlie,” he repeated, no embellishment as usual. “What’s yours?”

---

Miraphy rolled her eyes at this explaination, seeing that it wouldn't bring anything to argue about it. "Miraphy.", she shortly said and tried to collect her thoughts. So she and this Charlie were stuck on a strange island, surrounded by unicorns, the creatures that were so very hoped for to come back to Chevalin. At lest the Olde Herd horses hoped that. When the unicorns disappeared centuries ago, and landed up on this island, then they probably knew how to go back again. She sighed quietly when she realised that she had to bother one of the beautiful mythical creatures again.
"We have to find out how to go back to Chevalin.", Miraphy finally said, adressing Charlie. "Instead of asking politely, do you have any idea how we can get to know how?" It was kind of a rethorical question since there obviously wasn't any other way than asking some unicorn about it.

---

Charlie frowned at her eye roll, knowing he was perfectly justified – plus for five seconds outta the ten they’d been here, he’d had fun. “That’s pretty,” he told her, his eyes hopping from one figure to the next. “Wonder what people do around here for fun?” Charlie asked, watching as a lithe figure swayed past him. “Think they’ve got any rabbits to chase? Or squirrels. But you know how they are; soon as they’re up a tree it’s all ‘you’re mother’s a lobster and feather’s a pig’s behind!’ and you’re all ‘Yeah well, so’s YOUR mother!’ and then they’re all ‘GASP! ‘OW DER YOO TALK ABOUT MAH MUHZER! SHE IZ A SAINT YOU PIG!’ They’re all French for some reason. In my head at least,” he replied, going off on some strange tangent that seemed to make sense in his mind.

He thought about it for a moment, trying to recall the last few moments before waking up in the twilight zone. “Well, I conked myself pretty hard on the noggin,” he told her. “Maybe you did too, and you just don’t remember,” he said, trotting around and looking for something sturdy and hard. “See that rocky overcrop-ish thing there? We could run at it real fast and see what happens! Or you could smash me across the head with that… that… massive stick. That way if it doesn’t work, only one of us will be passed out in the grass if it doesn’t work! But if it does work, you’ll be left here alone. Or we could just wake up. This is probably all a bizarre dream anyway.”

---

Miraphy thought about it for a moment. "Maybe it could have been the hit on the head after all, also when I can't remember falling myself.", she said. This theory made more sense than the alien theory, but it still didn't explain how she could he here and how she could go back. Nevertheless she decided to try it out because of one logic reason she had built for herself: No matter if this all was real or not, the unicorns defenitely pocessed magic which could bring them back to the Island of Olde. They probably would refuse to let Charlie go back because of how rude he had been. So if the sill stick-plan worked she would be left alone, but there was more of a chance that a unicorn would send her back.
She picked up the huge stick, Charlie had mentioned, with her mouth and mumbled an apology in advance. He asked for it. she thought, as to convice herself of what she would be doing now. Miraphy raised the stick and slammed it down on Charlies head as hard as she could. Like expected, the stallion fell to the gound from the massive hit.
Miraphy dropped the stick. "Charlie? Charlie! Aw crud.", she said as she noticed that he, in fact, really just had passed out.

---

One moment, everything was fine and dandy. The next, his head was throbbing again, and he was seeing stars in front of his eyes, and falling to a heap on the floor. “OW!” he exclaimed as the starbursts took over his vision, blurring out the bicoloured eyes and pitching him into complete blackness.