The cold moonlight was falling down through the cloudy sky, brightening up the small path. The rain long ceased but the forest was still humid and the air was filled with petrichor mixed with other nature aromas. Occasionally, droplets of water fell down from the crowns of the trees. The surroundings were silent as the animals were still hiding after the storm. A shadowy figure was moving, breaking the serenity of the forest, zig-zagging around the small path trying to avoid the numerous flasks of mud.
"Of all the days, I had to come on the only one with such horrible weather," thought Amicus.
He shook off the rain droplets from his cloak and shivered. Luckily, he could already see the distant lights far behind the trees. In a matter of minutes, he would be able to warm up his hooves near a crackling fire. Splash! Completely lost in his thoughts, he has not noticed a puddle and stepped right in it.
"God damn it! My cloak!"
Several birds fled in panic from the sudden exclamation that resonated through the peaceful silence of the night. The unicorn tried to wipe off the mud out of his cloak, but only managed to get the stain even bigger. Silently cursing the rain, the mud and the poor choice of the living place of the tower's owner he wiped off the dirt of his light grey fur and continued walking.
The streak of trees suddenly ended, revealing a clear hill in the middle of the forest. On top of the hill stood a tall, loose, crooked tower. Its silhouette was clearly visible despite the dark sky. The pointed roof of the tower pierced right into the sky, appearing to rip the clouds in half and allowing the moonlight to illuminate it. The windows were opened, letting the light from the inside escape on the grass underneath it creating a bizarre shadow display.
Amicus approached and knocked on the massive oak door. After a while, he heard muffled creaking and puffing. The door opened and a purple unicorn popped his head out to find out who was knocking.
"W-Who's there?"
"Don't worry Clover. It's just me. Didn't your teacher told you I was coming?" said calmly Amicus.
"Amicus! I'm so happy you came to visit us! Master Starswirl told me that we would have a visitor. I was wondering if it was you! I already boiled a tisane. He is waiting for you in his cabinet!"
Amicus smiled. After he had left his teacher, he thought he would stay alone like he used to before. But surprisingly, Starswirl found a new pupil. And impressively quickly. One day, Clover just suddenly popped out of nowhere and almost pleaded for Starswirl to take her as an apprentice. He didn't quite understand how she managed to convince the old grumpy wizard, but she did, and since had shown incredible magical abilities and fast learning, rapidly gaining the nickname, "The Clever". The purple mare almost idolised her mentor, absorbing everything he said and executing all the chores he charged her with. Such dedication and compassion coming from such frail being never ceased to surprise Amicus.
"Now, now. We can do the greetings inside. I would never be able to speak to him if you don't let me enter."
"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please, do come in."
Clover rapidly stepped aside, letting him in. Amicus stepped inside and levitated his cloak to Clover. He could already feel the warm air slowly unfreezing his hooves.
"It was quite a challenge getting here. I almost drowned in the mud. Would you please help to clean the dirt off it?"
"Of course! I know just the thing!"
She quickly grabbed the cape and disappeared. Amicus adjusted his backpack and began making his way up the stone steps. As he arrived up, he opened the large oak door and walked in. The grey wizard was standing in front of a complex hexagram, back facing Amicus. His horn was glowing gold and his lips were murmuring an incantation. The hexagram looked as it was written on the bricks of the floor with fire, and new motives continued to appear. When Starswirl finished, the fire disappeared, leaving red-glowing traces on the floor. Then, he slowly turned towards his table and started levitating various magical ingredients, placing him around the traces.
“Do you have it?”
Amicus nodded, and after realising that the old unicorn wasn’t looking at him, replied.
“Yes, it’s in my bag. You can’t imagine how hard it was to convince her that…”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Starswirl cut him in mid-sentence.
“You have it, and that’s what is important. Place it in the centre.
Amicus executed and levitated a big reddish-looking egg that he carefully positioned in the centre of the hexagram. Starswirl came closer and nodded in satisfaction.
“Splendid. A perfectly fine dragon egg. You did good boy. Now step aside and let’s begin”
His eyes faded to white as his horn glowed brightly. The items placed around the hexagram started to slowly levitate up and turn around the egg faster and faster, slowly dissolving into dust that burned in colourful flames. Suddenly, a crack appeared on the egg. The intense light coming out of it. The ground started to shake. Several books fell down of the bookshelf, as well as few potion flasks.
“Starswirl!”
“Stand back! Don’t interrupt!”
The ground started shaking even stronger, the gravity suddenly stopped to exist. All the items present in the room started floating in random directions except Starswirl, who was already lifted up in the air, the egg that didn’t move and Amicus, that was desperately grabbing the carpet. The egg started to form more and more cracks and now looked like it was hiding a miniature sun that was desperate to burst out. Starswirl’s magic suddenly changed colour to black, the egg started to be enveloped in a violet fog which covered in small lightning. It started to shake and some sparks started to randomly hit the objects around the room, disintegrating them, changing their size and sometimes turning them into something completely random. Amicus cast a personal gravity spell and fell down and quickly hid behind the desk. Not for long as another lightning bolt hit it, transforming the desk into a pile of colourful gems. Suddenly, the egg, which was hidden by the smoke and full of cracks that looked like a gold web surrounding it which were the only visible part of it, exploded.All the items suddenly fell down as well and Starswirl was projected by the shockwave, hit the wall and fell down. Amicus rushed to him, helping him to get up. He then looked at the place the egg was a few seconds ago. An opaque black smoke was filling most of the room. Suddenly, two bright red eyes that glowed like two hellfires opened, illuminating through the darkness of the room and stared at Amicus. He shouted from fear and surprise and all went dark.
