The day was so cold, not even his magic could warm up the tower today. A few days ago he was able to create a protective barrier that made his tower look like it was never touched by this infernal winter, but ever since the clan summit ended, the blizzard was stronger. Now his home looked like a huge icicle sticking out of the endless sea of snow. None of the less, it did not bother him much, he was lost in his scrolls. The study was far from tidy, elixirs, scrolls book and other mystical objects were all over the room, crowding the shelves. The only light source in the room was a small candle which he held using his telekinetic spell. The old wizard raised an eyebrow and began to stroke his long white beard, obviously lost in his studies. The grayish-brown unicorn was old, although by looking at him you could not tell it because of this young spirit aura he emitted. The one very distinct thing about this particular unicorn was his beautiful, light blue horn, which was also the color of his magic aura. Another interesting thing about this old pony was his cutie mark: a bright crescent moon crossed with a magic wand. This was a sign that not many unicorns had, it was a sign of his powerful magical abilities. He was a great and respected wizard known throughout the land of the ponies, yes, but he was a loner, a house hermit who rarely ever left his tower, unless it was an emergency. His whole life he preferred his studies and book more than other ponies, even in happier times, before this blasted winter. He even refused to teach students. He had sent many a noble who wanted him to educate their offspring home. In his long life he only tutored one pony, and she was not of pure blood. It was a village mare by the name of Clover. He did like her, but he never strived to make any emotional contact with her. He did his job as a tutor well and Clover became the royal advisor and court wizard, this made him very proud, although he would never admit it. After he was done with her, he stopped having almost any connection with the world, and so folk tales started brewing. The less-educated unicorns told tales of how he was a powerful dragonslayer who had a golden castle at the end of the world, the pegasai were on about how he was and evil necromancer who has his army of skeleton ponies that would kill anypony who steps into his enchanted woods and the earth ponies scared their young by telling them that if they don’t do their chores the pony from the tower will eat them alive. He heard these and many more stories from the animal with whom he was friends with. He would use his magic to communicate with them and he would laugh everytime he would hear one of these nonsense stories the pony folk told about him. In truth, he was a kind soul, he would not hurt anypony, but he would scare them off by his magical alarm. Today, however, he was trying to find a spell to make his alarm stronger. Since the blizzard started, the earth ponies were always on the move, searching for land that they could grow something on. He had many unwanted visitors and his alarm was just not loud and scary enough to make them run away. As he was searching through his books and scrolls, he heard his alarm go off again. Somepony was nearing the tower. He suspected that it was probably a caravan of hungry and disoriented earth ponies passing through, but when he moved to the window, he was surprised at what he saw. Unicorns, two of them, wearing wonderful steel armors covered with large, heavy cloaks to protect them from the cold, galloped toward the tower. The old wizard let out a sigh and slowly made his way to the door. They reached it before him and knocked so loudly that the whole tower vibrated. “I’m coming, I’m coming” yelled the old unicorn as he made his way down the stairs. “Glory to you, Starswirl “ bowed the elder of the two as the wizard opened the door “ her grace, the most excellent and honorable princess Platinum of the unicorns wishes your presence at the capital”. “Could I know the reason please?” mumbled Starswirl, clearly quite irritated that he was interrupted. “The reason is not important!” Said the younger and more hot-blooded of the two “ An order is an order!”. The older guard raised his hoof and signaled the colt to stay calm “ Her majesty wants to discuss with you a very important matter of national security” His voice became more serious “ If you do not answer her call and arrive within a fortnight you will be branded a traitor to the realm”. Starswirl smiled ironically “A fortnight? Heh, I’m not some earth pony who needs to walk everywhere! I will teleport! I will be there before you!”. “ You watch your tongue!” yelled they young guard, preparing to strike the old pony. Luckily he was stopped by his older colleague who nodded to the wizard. Soon enough the two were off and Starswirl had to prepare. It has been years since he left his tower and he was unsure of how the world outside looks. He knew that he could not teleport directly to the unicorn capital but he remembered that in his younger days there was a small earth pony village somewhere in between the tower and the capital. He put on his wonderful blue cloak and hat. The clothes were covered with stars and swirls which sparkled in the moonlight. He made his way to his experiment room and began to chant words of power. His horn was engulfed in blue light which soon surrounded him and with a flash he was gone.
The colorful pegasus watched the conversation from afar. The woods near the wizards tower were very thick and covered with snow – the perfect place for this odd company of pegasai to hide. Two of them were warriors, wearing well forged golden armors . The other two were only wearing cloaks for protection from the cold. The senior one of the two warriors looked very excited, his gaze never leaving the tower. In the back, leaning on a tree, was a smaller green pegasus. Even with his warm black fur cloak it seemed that he was freezing. He took out a small orange bottle from the satchel on his back, shaking as the liquid touched his tongue. He then proceeded to offer the bottle to the blue Pegasus next to him. The warrior was too occupied with sharpening his weapon to even notice that the alchemist was offering him the warmth balm. The alchemist then turned to the last pony in this group. The pony had his whole head and body covered with a black leather cloak. The green Pegasus approached him: “ Take this, be reasonable, unlike those two stubborn heads over there”. “Be quite, grass brewer!” The colorful Pegasus turned around with an angry face “Do you want us to be discovered ?!”. The alchemist laughed and sat on a tree stump “ Well unless the wizard has magical ears I don’t see how he could hear us! And besides, relax a little…“ He stopped and focused his eyes on the tower. Two unicorn soldier were galloping twoards it. The blue pegasus pony, by the name of Pointdrop, grabbed his weapon and prepared to take off but was stopped by the colorful warrior, who goes by the nam of Dream Catcher: “Wait! We can’t attack now! Let’s see what they will do”. The company watched as the two unicorns conversed with the wizard. The two warriors could hardly wait to attack, strengthening the grip on their weapons. The alchemist watched from cover , checking how much medicine he has in his satchel. The one covered in his cloak was still standing in the same place, carefully monitoring the situation. The conversation at the door soon ended and the unicorns were preparing to leave. Dream Catcher was preparing to dash right into them but was stopped by a voice. The cloaked pony who was previously silent now spoke in a calm and mystical tone: “ If you dash in now the wizards alarm will go off and the unicorns would run to safety, we should follow them” . The colorful knight let out a grin: “ I’d be twice damned if I listened to a hireling! We attack now!“. He flew out of the wood followed by his partner Pointdrop, charging towards the enemy with a terrifying warcry. “ Wait!“ yelled the green alchemist, flying after them “ You will kill us all!“. As he flew he looked behind only to see that his mystical companion was still standing there, he would return and ask him why he is not helping but he was more concernedwith doing his job which was to keep the warriors alive. The two unicorn noticed the attackers but were not prepared. Dream Catcher lunged into the older soldier causing him to fall down into the snow. The younger unicorn was more agile and managed to evade Pointdrop as he went for the killing blow. He then proceeded to charge into Pointdrop, hitting his flank. The alchemist, Mint Chip, flew into the scene and upon looking at his comrades he quickly started to search through his satchel for something that could help. The older unicorn struggle to regain balance as Dream Cather prepared to hit him in the side. He managed to save himself in the last moment by using his magic to raise a small snow wall right in front of the colorful Pegasus. Hitting this wall disoriented Dream Catcher and he fell. The younger soldier managed to disarm Pointdrop . He then turned his gaze towards Mint Chip and lunged Pointdrops spear using his magic. The spear pierced the air, rapidly progressing towards the stunned green Pegasus. Then, suddenly, the spear broke with a flash. And orange Pegasus with a green and black mane broke the spear with his amazing speed, saving the alchemists life. Pointdrop regained balance and upon seeing the Pegasus he smiled: “ So nice of you to finally join us Info”. His sarcastic smile ended when he saw the unicorn charging his flank. He jumped out of the way, hitting the unicorns flank. Info flew down and hit the charging unicorn, nailing him to the ground, only to see that the older unicorn was preparing to hit him. In the last second, Pointdrop jumped in front of him and took the hit. This bought enough time for Dream Catcher to lunge into the unicorn and nail him down. Mint Chip flew down and grabbed the wounded blue Pegasus, moving him from danger. The young soldier rose up on his hooves and tried to hit Info but was stopped by Dream Catchers weapon. He fell down, bleeding in the snow. The older one was surrounded and helpless: “STOP!! Don’t kill me!“ Dream Catcher lifted him up: “ what business did you have with the wizard?“ “ We were there to tell him that he was ordered to go to the capital, to discuss matters of national security, that is all, he said he will be teleporting there!“. The pegasus let him go and he fell down, coughing. Dream Catcher the turned to his fellowship. Info put his cloak back on, looking at the distance while Mint Chip was tending to Pointdrops wounds. He walked up to them: “ The wizard has teleported to the unicorn capital, it looks like we have failed“. He sat down, burying his face into his hooves. Mint Chip rose his head, he looked like he wanted to say something but was wondering if he should. Finally he let out a sigh and decided to talk “ Ehmm… I happen to know a bit about unicorn magic and I think that not even a powerful wizard like Starswirl could directly teleport such a long distance without making a stop somewhere”. “This is true, we should move at once” Said Info, picking up on the alchemists words. Dream Catcher rose up, brushing off the snow on his armor: “ Then let’s go! Commander Hurricane gave us the order to kill or capture this witch and I will not fail him!” He turned to Pointdrop “Can you fly?”. Pointdrop nodded in approval: “let’s go get him!”. At that moment Dream Catcher spread out his wing and flew off towards the north, followed by the rest of the fellowship
Blue light flashed in the middle of the village square. It was hardly a village in now, more of a ruin, nothing like Starswirl remembered it. Burned down houses and cracked stone paths. It wouldn’t be so bad if half of the place was not swallowed in snow. He wrapped himself tighter with his blue cloak and started moving towards the old well. Unsurprisingly , the water was frozen solid. He used his magic to melt it and took a sip. As he drank he wondered if there were any ponies here. One would of course think that like the majority of earth pony villages this one was abandoned. He looked around for shelter and was surprised to see one house still in good shape. It was a big wooden structure, probably a inn. All the windows were boarded up but still dim light could be seen through them. Starswirl was hesitant to approach. The door opened and a strange black figure walked out. An earth pony, covered with a torn up brown cloak, looked at the wizard. After a few seconds his scared face was engulfed with anger: “ A damn unicron!” he shouted and began to charge. The old unicorn quickly used his magic to lock his attacker in place. “You… worm!...” screamed the black pony as he struggled to move. “ Eadur, that’s no way to treat a guest in our fair village”. The voice was coming from inside the inn. A yellow earth pony wearing an apron walked outside. “ Hello to you friend! We don’t get a lot of visitors here, could I know what brings you here?”. Starswirl was still in shock and was not sure if he should answer. The innkeeper smiled: “ Did our local troublemaker scare you? He is an old drunk, no need to be scared of his words”. Eadur did not react well to these words. He gave the innkeeper a look that would give anypony chills. He then turned to Starswirl “ Your kind is not welcome here! Why did you come?! To steal some more mares like you stole my daughter!?”. The yellow pony tried to calm him down: “He does not look like a soldier, he could be useful, calm down”. “This is true” the wizard finally spoke “ I am not sworn to anypony, I am a simple traveller seeking shelter”. “ Like Tartarus you are!” said Eadur, finally managing to move again. “ I am here only for some information and shelter, I swear my life on that” said Starswirl raising his hoof. “Then come in friend!” shouted the innkeeper and pointed towards the door. Starswirl walked in, looking back at the black pony who chose not to follow them in. The room was dim and overcrowded. Mares, stallions, fillies and colts, all looking tired and hungry, were lying on the floor. There was only one big worn out table in the room, with only two chairs. The innkeeper told him to sit in one. Starswirl sat down while the yellow pony opened a bottle with his teeth and poured the liquid in a cup. He pushed it to Starswirls side of the table: “Tell me friend, how can I help you?”
