“The fire of friendship lives in our heart…”
The sounds of the carollers singing filled the air around Canterlot. Families were in their homes, sitting around fires, drinking cocoa, sharing stories. Everywhere, ponies were revelling in the spirit of friendship and unity. A long way from where ponykind had come from; Celestia knew that personally.
She looked up at the statue of the old draconequus once more. She could not count the number of Hearthswarming Eve’s she had come to the gardens to visit him. Somepony had placed a small wreath below the statue. Celestia had an idea of whom it might have been.
Discord had broken out of his prison earlier in the year and had rained chaos, quite literally, across the lands of Equestria. In his renewed prison, Celestia could see the fear etched across his face. It was easier to convince herself of the rightness of his imprisonment in the first place, when he wore that smug laugh on his face for over a millenia. But every Hearthswarming, she’d come to question her resolve.
The look of terror on his face this time made it far harder for her to accept.
Despite what he had become, Celestia had been secretly gladdened to see him free, if even just for that little while. Even if he was taunting the Solar Princess, it was still good to hear his voice once more.
“You’re so annoying, you pitiful old stallion,” Celestia sighed, sitting before the statue. “I’d like to help you, but I don’t know if I can.”
Ж The Royal Guard Tower Ж
Luna shifted in her makeshift saddlebag carrier; the blue alicorn filly crying at the cold.
“There there, little one,” the older unicorn pulled his cape off, wrapping the filly tighter in her carrier. Luna giggled as she pawed at the bells on the hem of the cloak. “Tia, how about you? Are you warm enough?”
“Yes, Professor Starswirl,” Celestia lied, trying to suppress her shivering.
“Come now, Tia. No need to lie to me.” Starswirl removed another layer of the winter clothing he wore, and draped it over Celestia’s back, carefully sliding it under the saddlebag. With a light glow of his horn, Celestia and Luna felt slightly warmer. He then grabbed an apple from his pack, splitting it into quarters and levitated them to Celestia.
Luna giggled as she chewed noisily on her apple quarter.
“Hearthfire’s Shield, very practical spell for keeping one warm in the snow,” Starswirl instructed. Even in such circumstances as these, he did not falter in his lessons to his student. “Do you remember the incantations necessary to perform the spell?”
Celestia furrowed her brow, chewing slowly on the apple. “I remember this: it was… Hearth’s Fire keep me warm, let your love enkindle me through any storm?”
“Very good, Celestia!” Starswirl applauded his student.
“It’s not fair.” Celestia drooped to the cold stone floor. “You don’t need to speak the words to cast the spell. I sound silly when I do my magic.”
Starswirl smiled, lifting Celestia’s chin up with a hoof. “One day you will not need to vocalise the incantations to cast the spell, you should keep practicing. Even somepony with as much raw talent as you will have to practice practice practice.”
Celestia looked down at her side, her eyes attempting to focus on her unseen flank. “Do you think my cutie mark will be like yours? Do you really think I’ll be a great magician like you?”
Starswirl laughed. “Of course, my little Celestia, of that I have no doubt. You and your sister are wonders, winged unicorns! Whatever you special talents end up being, I know they will be magnificent. You are destined for great things, Celestia, I can feel it in these old bones.” A chill ran up his spine.
“And speaking of feeling things in these old bones,” he chuckled, “why don’t we put a little more fuel on this fire?”
Starswirl sighed as he levitated another couple of books towards the dwindling fire. They had already burned through the bookshelf, they just needed to keep warm enough until morning. Even though the books were just the logs kept by the soldiers in this old guard tower, he still felt a pang of guilt for burning them… but better for there to be a pony left to read them, than for them to freeze and the books remain unread forever.
“A-Are you cold, Professor?”
Starswirl’s horn lit again, enveloping his body in the grey aura of his magic. “Oh, don’t mind me. I just forgot to renew the spell,” he lied. The truth was, the cold was biting at him through the remaining layers of clothing.
“Besides, this thing keeps me warm, I see why the two of you love them so much.” Starswirl flapped his single, useless blue pegasus wing, trying to convince the filly. When she smiled and nodded, he returned the wing to his side. “You should try and get some sleep, Celestia; we still have a long way to travel before we meet up with the others. I’ll keep an eye on things.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow, looking at the sinister-looking steel-grey amulet hanging from the side of Starswirl’s bag. It exuded malevolence; the profile of the unicorn head menacing with its ruby eyes. “Maybe I should keep watch, and you can get some sleep.”
Noticing her gaze, Starswirl smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t use it unless I absolutely have to.”
Celestia nodded, and unrolled the small sleeping roll near the fire. She placed her little sister under the blankets, still wrapped tightly, and slid in next to her. Celestia pulled Luna close to her chest, and hummed a sweet lullaby until both fillies fell asleep.
Starswirl smiled as the soft, rhythmic breathing of the two young fillies filled the room. The peaceful sounds were almost enough to make him forget about the wailing and the howling of the windigoes outside the walls.
Ж Flight of the Timberwolves Ж
Eight hooves beat against the snow sodden ground, as Celestia and Starswirl ran through the path between the trees. The howls tearing through the air behind the ponies warned them of the rapidly approaching danger.
The frigid remains of the Forest of Leota should have been clear of the magical menace, but with a lack of surviving food source, the timberwolves nipping at their hooves would make do with any meal.
Starswirl had no intention of allowing his charges to be the final meal of those malodorous monsters.
“Celestia, stay behind me!” Starswirl shouted as he spied the pack breaking through the trees behind them. “Do you remember Antique Armor’s Aerial Aegis spell? Try to keep that up as long as you can.”
A small dome of golden magical light encompassed Celestia and the filly at her side.
Starswirl spun around as he skidded to a halt; facing the encroaching pack.
Magical fire arced across the air, striking the largest timberwolf in the chest. It was a truly powerful spell indeed, but it was also a desperate gambit on Starswirl’s part. The old stallion did not have the energy for more than one of those spells; he had to hope the rest of the pack would run away in fear at seeing what he presumed was their alpha struck down in flames.
It was a desperate gambit, but one that ultimately failed. The normally flighty and cowardly timberwolves were obviously too distracted by their own hunger. It was a feeling he was acutely aware of in himself. The wolves circled, testing the old stallion and his younger companions defenses. Luna’s wailing scream filled the air as a particularly large timberwolf slammed a wooden paw at her sister’s shield.
Her screams was all Starswirl needed. He could not let anything happen to his wards. They were the future of Ponykind, if only he could get them to the north, where the rest of the unicorns had fled.
“Wretched beasts! Keep your foul maws away from my pupil!” Lightning arced across the skies, bolts striking each of the beasts. They lunged for him, two at a time, he managed to deflect one with a partial Aerial Aegis spell, and strike the other with a conjuration of Fallowfields Flame-Flail.
“Fighting’s for the guards,” Starswirl grunted, as he felled yet another timberwolf.
Celestia’s shield flickered a few times during the battle, nearly falling completely when one of the timberwolves managed to land a strike and leave a deep gash across his left side.
“Don’t worry about me…” Starswirl barked. “Keep the shield up!”
The old stallion collapsed, panting, as the last two timberwolves fled, their pack lying scattered around the small clearing. Only then did Starswirl allow Celestia to drop her shield.
“You’re hurt!” Celestia ran to the prone wizard.
“I’m fine,” Starswirl lied, wincing as he tried to stand. “Well, mostly fine.”
“Don’t move!” Celestia ordered him. She placed the still crying Luna next to Starswirl, who immediately started to try and soothe the distraught filly.
“Gentle winds sooth thy spirit and heal thy soul.” Celestia’s horn glowed brightly, as she infused Starswirl’s wound with magic. The old stallion beamed with pride, healing magic was never his forte.
“You’ve really mastered healing magicks, Celestia,” he praised her whilst stroking a hoof through Luna’s little blue mane. “You make an old stallion proud!”
“What can I say? I had a great teacher,” Celestia giggled, trying hard to close the tear in the fabric. Transmutation was not one of her strong points.
“Hah! The day Clover the Clever is a better teacher than I, I’ll… I’ll trim my beard!” Starswirl mockingly pouted, before giving way to a chuckle. “Though I’d probably transmute it back right away. Here, let me get that.”
Celestia protested as Starswirl’s weak magic aura flickered over the torn fabric, closing the tears and rejoining the thread.
“I could fight too, you know,” Celestia pouted, offering a hoof to help the old stallion up.
“I have no doubt of that, my faithful student, but you are only thirteen years old,” Starswirl answered. “You’ll have many years ahead of you to fight, but today is not that day. And I’m as old as garlic-balls, I’ve only got a few years of fighting left in me. Take what rest you can get!”
Starswirl wobbled on his hooves, chuckling with the younger mare. He levitated Luna back into the saddlebag on Celestia’s back. “Did you want to try and cast Hearthfire’s Shield? I’m… I’m still a little winded.”
Celestia nodded, then began the chant to cast the spell. Her golden-yellow aura enveloped them all, and the three of them were warmed again from winter’s bitter chill.
“Let’s get go—”
A growl behind them interrupted Starswirl. He turned around to see the kindling that formerly made up the timberwolf pack slide together; a much larger timberwolf began to rise from the ground.
“A-A dire timberwolf?” Starswirl sputtered. “Celestia, get back!”
“Professor, you can’t!” Celestia stepped to his side. “You’re still burned out from the last fight. Let me, please.”
Celestia had vast stores of magical power, the likes Starswirl had never seen before. It was one of the reasons he had taken one so young as her as his apprentice. The two winged unicorns held more power than a thousand of his unicorn brethren combined.
But she was young and inexperienced, and a fight against a dire timberwolf was no place to cut your teeth in battle.
“No, Celestia,” Starswirl ordered. “I said get back.”
His horn glowed and his magic sputtered as he levitated the accursed amulet from its place on his belt. Celestia begged him not to use it, but he paid her no heed as the amulet fell upon his neck.
“AHhaaHahAAhAhhAAAhhAAhaAhAhhAHHHAhA,” Starswirl cackled as he rose from the sodden earth, his two wings beating furiously to lift him off the ground. “Little block of wood thinks he can get the best of me? Starswirl? Master of the Amniomorphic spell?”
Starswirl reached out a talon as he flew around the howling, snapping wolf. Strips of wood-flesh were torn from the wolves body, the old stallion tossing the exploding chunks of lumber over his shoulder.
Starswirl grabbed a vine that seemed to be acting as sinew between the body and the front paw. He pulled at it, twirling it in his taloned claw, spinning it until it was a fluffy pink cotton candy.
“Oh, don’t mind if I do!” he cackled with glee, jamming a stick in the cotton candy mess and began to chew. “Why, with giving the fillies all the food, I’ve been positively famished!”
Starswirl played with the timberwolf, who thrashed around at the flying unicorn, until he started to tire.
“This game has become boring,” Starswirl complained. “Time for this copse to become a corpse!”
Another slash of his talon and the timberwolf exploded into coloured confetti.
His wings slowed as he landed on the ground. A sob behind him broke his attention on the mess around him.
Curled up on the ground, cowering below a shimmering bubble of gold, was the white winged unicorn that was his charge. He reached his taloned hand up and tore the amulet from his neck.
“Celestia!” he hobbled over awkwardly. “Tia! Please, I’m sorry I scared you. I’m okay now. Look!”
Celestia looked over her mentor, fear in her eyes. His left foreleg was now sporting an eagle’s talon, and the previously single pegasus wing was accompanied by a leathery bat wing on the other side. Not only that, his snout had lengthened considerably.
“You're getting worse, Professor,” Celestia whimpered. “Your nose is longer, and you started to fly in the air!”
“I flew?”
“Professor, promise me you won't put it on again,” Celestia begged.
“O-Okay.” Starswirl levitated the amulet back into his pack. “Let’s get going, we don’t want to be in these woods when night falls.”
Ж In the House of Platinum Ж
“There has to be some food here somewhere!”
Starswirl rifled through the larders of the old mansion. He had been here before, a personal guest of the overbearing windbag who called herself Princess Platinum. The house had already been ransacked, either by the northern bound Princess herself, or other ponies who had passed through earlier.
He suspected it was the latter, as Princess Platinum was known more for her love of finery and jewels than a level-headedness that would think to take food with them. He thanked the stars when his former apprentice, Clover the Clever, was made Magical Courtier to the Princesses court. She had the sense about her to act with intelligence, something the pompous royalty sorely lacked. They did not call her Clover the Clever for nothing.
Starswirl managed to find a few scraps of food. The cold had thankfully preserved most of what he had found, and he brought it back to the drawing room where Celestia and Luna laid by the fire. Starswirl was thankful that there were still pieces of furniture around the house, though he was certain Platinum would object to him burning her antique-whatevers.
“Here you go, girls. I’ve found some bread, it’s a little stale, but it is still edible. There is also some fruits and cheeses. Celestia, do you like bananas?” Starswirl levitated the wooden tray that held the food to the floor in front of the girls. “Make sure you share that with Luna. I’m going back to warm up some milk, see if it is still okay to drink.”
Starswirl continued his scouring of the homestead for anything that might aid them in their journey north. He scoffed at what remained of the opulence in the mansion. The money Platinum and her family wasted could have schooled hundreds, if not thousands of unicorns. Had they not fretted away the nation’s income on such frivolities, they could have perhaps solved the problems they had with the pegasus and the earth ponies.
They might have been able to hold back this infernal winter.
When he returned to the drawing room, he found Celestia had fallen asleep. Luna cooed happily from her wrappings.
He warmed the milk and poured it into a cracked porcelain cup. He helped hold it for Luna, who greedily drank it down. He was glad that the milk had frozen before it had turned.
“That’s a good filly, Lulu.” He tipped the cup right back, holding it in his magic as she tried to hold it between her hooves. “Drink up. You’ll need milk to grow up strong like your big sister.”
“Hmmm?” Celestia groaned as she stirred. “Pfser Sarrswirl?”
“Sorry, Celestia. I did not mean to wake you. Here, have some warm milk, that’ll help you get back to sleep.”
Celestia eagerly drank the warm milk, and laid back on her side, curling against the now dozing Luna.
Ж
“Professor!” Celestia hissed, rousing the old stallion from his slumber. “Professor, wake up!”
Starswirl opened his eyes, he hadn’t recalled falling asleep.
“Professor! Somepony is in the house!”
Starswirl sat bolt upright. He slowed his breathing and strained his ears. Celestia was right, something was in the house with them. He thought he recognised those sounds, but he couldn’t be right. This was the Princesses home. And while the pompous buffoons had a near reverent worship of their ancestors— No! They wouldn’t!
A guttural groan confirmed that he was indeed right.
“Celestia, make sure you have Lulu secured,” he whispered. “And keep very, very quiet.”
Many foal’s stories had wildly inaccurate idea of how the reanimated responded to ponies. There were ridiculous ideas that if one was bitten by one of the reanimated, one would become reanimated themselves. Or that the reanimated lusted for pony flesh, or particularly, the pony brain.
Complete and utter poppycock.
The Unicorn College of Magic never outright banned the necromantic arts, but it’s practice had fallen into disuse long before Starswirl had even entered his apprenticeship.
Starswirl knew enough about the true dangers of the reanimated. The real danger in the reanimated was when the caster lost control, or the reanimated broke free from the binding circles. Like, say for example, a salt binding circle getting damp and blowing away in a blizzard!
The nobles had always looked down upon the practice, saying it vile, uncouth, and disrespectful of the dead. After his very short studies in the subject, Starswirl happened to agree with them on this matter.
Trumped up hypocritical self-entitled idiotic buffoons!
Starswirl was still exhausted from his previous fight with the Timberwolves, and his magic had been playing up since. It was acting in unpredictable ways. While he’d been searching for something to drink the night before, a cup of hot cocoa appeared before him. He greedily drank it down, only to find he had drank the cup, and the cocoa had spilled through his talons.
He was unsure he trusted himself to be able to cast the simple banishment spell, let alone anything more complex to deal with them.
He looked to his backpack, his mind on the amulet that could save them again, until Celestia put a hoof on his claw.
“You promised,” she pleaded.
“You’re right, Celestia, I promised. But I am still a very weak,” Starswirl whispered. He was too old for this, and he hated admitting it. “Do you think you can cast a silent teleportation spell on us, and get us out of here?”
Celestia’s eyes bulged in her head.
“I-I can’t. I’ve never been able to quiet-cast, and teleportation is the hardest,” she whispered back to her mentor. “I couldn’t do it.”
“You can do it, Celestia, I believe you.” The old stallion smiled warmly at his student. “This time, it’ll be you who saves me.”
Celestia closed her eyes, and built the energy up in her horn. Starswirl watched as she silently mouthed the words. He could feel the magical build up.
The energy dissipated, but the three were still sitting in the drawing room.
“I can’t do it,” Celestia sobbed quietly.
“You can, Celestia. You are my most talented student, even more than Clover was at your age. Now, try again, this time speak the words in your mind, but do not mouth them. Speak them in your mind with the confidence I’ve heard in your voice when you speak the incantations out loud.”
Once again, the power built, and Starswirl felt the familiar tug in his stomach as they winked out of existence.
When they reappeared, they were about three feet from the ground. Celestia instinctively spread her wings before she fell, but Starswirl, still unused to his recent appendages, dropped to the ground with a grunt.
“Professor!” Celestia hissed, as she alighted next to him. “Are you okay?”
Starswirl got to his hooves (and talon) and brushed himself off. “I am fine, my faithful student. And you did very well! But we are not out of the woods yet. Literally, it would seem.” He looked around at the tree’s that surrounded them; the old mansion stood to the east, a graveyard filled with ponies shambling in the snow, between the trio and the old home.
“Let’s be off, before we disturb them.”
Ж Descent into Madness Ж
“Who were those ponies?” Celestia asked as the broke through the treeline. “Why were they standing around in the cold?”
Starswirl did not particularly want to have to explain the finer details, or indeed any details, of necromancy to his student. They had traumatised him when he was in his late twenties.
“T-They were sick, Celestia.”
“Shouldn’t we help them?” Celestia asked as she slowed to a trot. “Professor Clover taught me all kinds of healing spells.”
“They are beyond healing now, Celestia. Come on, we have to keep going.”
“No!” Celestia stopped in her tracks. “Professor Clover told me that we should not withhold care for those in need.”
That sounds exactly like Clover would say; she always was the bleeding heart.
“Celestia, please believe me when I say nothing can be done for them.” Starswirl turned back to his student, and grabbed her by the hoof with his taloned claw. “Now come, we have to go.”
Celestia struggled against the stallions grip, but he was larger than her and was able to drag her with him, his wings helping him balance on three hooves. Luna wailed as the three trudged through the cold open plain.
“Come Celestia. We are upsetting your sister.”
As the treeline disappeared behind them, Celestia ceased her struggling. She cooed quietly to her little sister, trying to fight the anger she felt toward her mentor… and what he had become. She cursed the damned amulet under her breath.
“Look, Celestia.” He pointed a claw toward the distant horizon. The sight of him freely using that appendage sickened her. She looked towards the horizon where he pointed. “It’s the Saddle Horn Peaks.”
“So that means the San Palomino Desert is to the west?” Celestia asked, trying to maintain some enthusiasm for the impromptu geography lesson. She found it hard to focus on her mentors voice when he was the kind of pony who would leave others to die.
“Actually, Celestia, we’re in the San Palomino Desert already. Well, on the outskirts at least. Not far beyond the peaks is the Appaloosan mountains. Now we can go over the mountain range, rather than through it. It is lucky I have these…” He gave his wings a flutter.
Celestia recoiled in disgust. Those wings were nothing but a reminder of what he was turning into. She hated that amulet, it was turning her beloved mentor into… into a monster!
Starswirl noticed her reaction, and quickly folded his new wings to his side, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and anger. He only had these strange new features because he was trying to protect her. Her stubbornness about the reanimated ponies was obviously still an issue, but he did not see any way of dealing with it without having to expose her to an unnecessary reality.
If she thought him a monster, so be it. So long as she and Luna were safe, he would be a monster.
“Diamond Dogs have inhabited these ranges for the last six hundred years,” he continued with his lecture; anything to take their minds off recent events. “Ponies have tried trading with them, but the primitive canines are well known for their propensity to backstab… I wonder how their packs are doing in these cold times.”
“I don’t care.”
Starswirl stopped. “Sorry, Celestia?” he asked, trying to keep his voice patient and gentle.
“I said, I don’t care!” She stomped ahead of him. Turning to face him in anger, she slammed a hoof to the cold ground. “I don’t care what you have to say, because you are evil!”
“W-What?” Starswirl was flabberghasted. He knew she was angry, but for her to call him evil?
“I said you are evil! You left those ponies to die! Professor Clover would never have left them there, she would have found someway to help them.”
It was true, Clover would have found a way to help them, to release them from their servitude. Truthfully, had he not been fleeing the windigoes, slowly freezing in the blizzard, and had full access to his magical faculties, he too would have worked hard to release the poor souls from their bondage.
But Celestia was too young to understand this, and there was no way he could teach her the necessary spells to free them. It had taken him years to learn them, and even then they only worked in theory. He had never had the need to put them into practice.
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Starswirl barked, his patience worn thin. “If we make it through this alive, I promise, Clover and I will come back and help them. Just… move it!”
“They’ll be dead by the time you get back!” Celestia screamed, oblivious to the blizzard growing around them.
“THEY’RE ALREADY DEAD!” Starswirl screamed. “THE TROTTING DEAD! CANTERING CORPSES. PONIES REANIMATED BY DARK MAGICKS!”
Celestia ceased her screaming, holding back tears. “W-What? Why— why would anypony do that?”
As the blizzard around them raged, Luna started to cry. Celestia tried to calm her down, but the filly was inconsolable.
“I do not know why it was done, but believe me, I will not rest until I see those who have done so come to justice. I did not want to—”
A howling above them interrupted Starswirl.
“Oh… oh no.” Starswirl began to panic. “Celestia, run!”
“What? What’s happening?” Celestia followed Starswirl’s gaze, and saw the creatures circling above them. “What are they?”
“They’re the windigoes. Celestia, take Luna and flee. Get over the mountains, find Clover. Get to safety!” He enveloped his student in a magical aura. “That should give you the endurance to fly for a few days. Please, go!”
“No, Professor, please,” Celestia begged, tears in her eyes. “I can’t leave you here. You’re not strong enough to fight them off.”
“No, I am not,” he admitted, as the circling beasts began to descend. “But I can hold them off while you escape. Go, find Clover, she will guide you and your sister!” He levitated the amulet from his backpack, bringing it toward his neck. “Go! They need you more than they need an old coot like me.”
“You— you promised.”
“Go!”
Celestia raced north in the direction of the barely visible Appaloosan range. Starswirl’s spell had indeed given her a boost in vigor, she was able to take to the air, even encumbered with the heavy winter clothing and her sister in the saddlebag across her back. She flew at breakneck speeds, the sound of the wind in her ears drowning out the mad cackle behind her. The cold air stung her eyes, but she continued, until she reached the range.
Turning back to see her mentor, Celestia could not find sign of him, beyond flashes of light silhouetting the Saddle Horn Peaks. The snow around the area had turned to a green and purple checker pattern, and motes of earth were floating around, slamming into the unseen foes flying in the blizzard.
Celestia turned around, resuming her ascent. Hopefully the other Unicorns wouldn’t be too far away, and they could come back for Starswirl. Even if they couldn’t, she would never forget the old stallion.
“Good bye, Professor. I’ll remember you.”
Ж Remembrance Ж
When they’d met again, Starswirl had no recollection of who she was. From that day they had been enemies; she an agent of order, he of chaos. No pony beyond herself and Luna knew who he once was; neither could bear the stallion who had save them be remembered only as a monster.
Celestia sighed, turning back to the castle. The chill in the air reminded her too much of those days, of the running and hiding. The desperation, the fear. It reminded her of what she had lost.
“Maybe…” she turned back, addressing the silent statue. “Maybe one of them could help, where I failed you.”
She smiled at the thought, remembering him as he once was.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve, Starswirl.”
