The Epic of Starswirl the Bearded

by zeroxwolfx

The Coming of Disharmony

The Lost Epic of Starswirl the Bearded
Chapter 2: The Coming of Disharmony

His dreams were filled with strange and distorted images. It was a mildly disturbing dream, that was climaxed by the meeting of a strange and terrible entity but before it could reveal itself to him, Starswirl was awoken by a loud thunderclap off in the distance. He jolted up out of his bed, catching his breath as he rubbed his face, trying to shake off the odd dream. Looking outside he could see there was a monsoon taking place, and he shrugged off his dream as nothing more than the result of the thunderous noises coming from the storm. The old pony went to take a few puffs of his pipe, this always seemed to calm him down, and since it was still the middle of the night, he figured he’d want to get a few more hours of sleep. The storm kept him awake for maybe another hour, but eventually he was able shrug off the loud noises and fall asleep.

He awoke again, more pleasantly this time from his dreamless sleep sometime later in the morning. He also awoke to find that the storm was still taking place outside of his window, just as hard as it was before. After shaking the sleep out of his eyes, Starswirl lumbered out to the front door of his small hovel, and opened it up, wrapping his cloak tightly around him to protect him from the cold wind and pouring rain. Looking up he saw dozens of pegasai desperately trying to beat away the storm clouds, but it kept rolling in with more and more of the violent weather. Starswirl was a bit perplexed by this, he went inside to pack a few of his things, as well as to put his staff on his back, and then he went back into the rain, trotting to the house of his student, Clover the Clever. He was not surprised to find her already awake with her nose buried in her books.

“Master, what are you doing outside in this rain?” she asked him, setting her book aside.

“Clover my dear was there a storm scheduled for today?” he asked, a bit of urgency in his tone.

Clover stepped back and shuffled through some papers that were posted on a wall in her room, “No master, it doesn’t look like there’s a storm scheduled for today... what does this mean sir?” she asked with a perplexed look on her face.

Starswirl shook his head, “I don’t know, grab your things and get ready young mare, we have some work to do” he said, motioning her to hurry up with his hoof. Clover quickly put her books away, and went off in search of her pack and cloak, “Quickly now!” he said hurrying her along. Soon she came out with her supplies, and the two ran out into the rain.

Starswirl and Clover ran through the freezing rain to the center of their town, Mare’omer; one of the larger
settlements in the Equestrian Valley. Here they’d find the regions only castle, which was once home to the unicorn King Mercury, and his daughter Princess Platinum. However, they have since abandoned their titles, not wanting to claim superiority over anypony and have instead taken on the title of, “Councilor” Platinum. Inside castle, “Mare Hall”, Starswirl would find the delegates of Equestria; Councilor Platinum of the Unicorns, Councilor Pamby of the Pegasai, and Councilor Smart Cookie of the Earth Ponies. The previous leader of the earth ponies, Chancellor Pudding Head had since passed down his title to his secretary, stating his reason to be that he had much more important things to do (which turned out to be organizing town parades and throwing parties for the pony delegates) and that given their past history, he believed his secretary to be much more qualified for the position. The previous leader of the Pegasus ponies, Commander Hurricane passed down his title to his second in command, 1st Class Private Mamby Pamby. The Commander passed up the position of “Councilor”, for the reason that he felt that he was much better suited for combat, and would not be an effective political leader for the ponies. Aside from this, all of the delegates agreed that the Commander would make an excellent military leader to their newly formed nation, should the need ever arise, and so he took the position of Grand Commander of the First Equestrian Army.

“Pamby, are you absolutely SURE that you didn’t accidentally schedule storms today… or that some other pony did?” Councilor Cookie asked to the meek Pegasus.

Pamby nodded his head, looking a little terrified, partially because of the minor accusations, but mostly because of the occasional booming of thunder overhead, “Absolutely Smart Cookie… I checked it this morning… and then I checked it again before I got here… at least I think I did… oh nooo is it my fault? I hope it isn’t my fault…” said Pamby looking worried and slumping in his councilor’s chair.

The well-dressed unicorn, Councilor Platinum, raised a hoof to speak, “I for one don’t think you’d do such a thing Councilor Pamby, you’ve been in charge of that weather schedule for years and you’ve never once mixed up the storm dates, there’s no reason to believe that you would make such an error now” Platinum put eloquently. This gave some slight relief to the timid Mamby Pamby.

Smart Cookie looked distraught at this however, as this brought them no closer to a solution, “Well then where the hay is all of this weather coming from? Could it have been an accident from one of the mage apprentices?” he asked, desperately seeking for an angle to work at.

Starswirl and Clover had since came in, and sat down at the far end of the long table that the Councilors sat at. Starswirl spoke up, a bit to their surprise, “No, I’m afraid that is not it Sir Councilor; I would have sensed the use of magic in any of my apprentices, and once more, I do not believe any of them are quite capable of conjuring such a powerful storm.” He said before taking out his pipe again, lighting under the small magical flame of his horn. He took a puff of it slowly. Sensing the impatience of the councilors he spoke up, “Where is Commander Hurricane?” He asked

“Commander Hurricane has been up all morning trying to put out the thunder clouds… he’s been working tireless for hours… some of his squadron has even had to rest since then. I’m worried he may be pushing himself too hard, but whenever we try to get him to come down to rest he doesn’t listen… what if he hurts himself?” said the meek Pegasus Councilor, he was genuinely worried about the Commander, for even though they didn’t exactly match up in personalities, Hurricane was one of Pamby’s oldest friends.

Starswirl huffed another ring of smoke out of his pipe before he looked over to Pamby, “Hurricane is the strongest flyer these lands have ever seen Councilor, I do not believe he will fall so easily to a mere thunderstorm!” He said, trying to lift his spirits with a smile. He spoke again to him with a little more concern on his face, “Councilor Pamby… are there any Pegasus you know of that have been… disorderly, or unruly as of late?”

Pamby thought for a moment, “Hmm, no… I certainly haven’t heard of any Pegasai acting up. I haven’t heard any bad reports from Commander Hurricane either, well, except for when he sometimes complains that they don’t match up to his abilities” Pamby looked worried for a moment, “You don’t think… you don’t think a disgruntled Pegasus could be responsible for this do you?” he asked with a look of shock in his eyes. Such accusations of renegade Pegasai hadn’t been made since before the founding of Equestria.

Smart Cookie Looked a little offended at this, “That’s a might big accusation to be throwing around there Mr. Bearded…” he said throwing him a grimacing look.

Starswirl shook his head raising a hoof to show that he meant no offense, “No, no Councilors, I simply wanted to rule everything out. Although to be honest, I was hoping it was something more like that rather than… what I had originally suspected…” He said, sounding a bit dire towards the end of his sentence.

All three councilors looked at him with interest, “You KNOW what’s causing this? Well what is it?!” Spoke up Councilor Platinum.

“Come on spill it!” Councilor Cookie said afterwards impatiently.

Starswirl looked at them plainly, and a look of frustration came across his face; he still didn’t have answers for them, “I don’t know…” He said quietly. He stood up out of his chair, and flung his pipe back into his pack, “…but right now we need to take care of this storm, come along Clover, we need to find the Commander” he faced the councilors again, “Councilors, I would advise you coordinate getting your ponies to safety” And with that, he and his apprentice stormed out of the castle, with hardly a moment for the councilors to wish them good luck.

The wind had picked up since they were last outside. Starswirl was having trouble keeping his hat on his head, and Clover was having trouble moving at all against the harsh wind. All around them ponies were moving frantically, to either seek shelter in the storm, or to save their various goods from the unforgiving wind and rain. The two ponies made off slowly in the distance, moving as quickly as they could against the resistance of the weather. Just in front of him Starswirl spotted a young mare, trying to drag a basket of potatoes into her house, there was a large wooden sight that had been caught in the wind, it was on her house, and blowing tediously close to her, only held back by a small divot in her roof. The large wooden sign broke free and came crashing down towards the mare, seconds before it struck her, it was lifted up by the magic of Starswirl’s horn. The mare gasped as she saw what almost happened. Starswirl flung the sign aside, out of the way of any pony, he waved at her furiously, trying to tell her to get inside, and she caught his hint, running inside, abandoning her basket.

As they ran towards the other side of town, the wind grew stronger yet. Starswirl himself was beginning to struggle to move. He lifted his staff and parted the wind with it, a swirl of the air moving around them, making him able to finally move completely unhindered. But all around him, ponies where fumbling, and tripping, hardly able to move or see in the torrential rain and wind. As he looked above him, he could see the Pegasai coming out of the clouds; they had given up trying to fight the weather and have instead moved downward to try to help wayward ponies to safety. Off in the distance he could see one Pegasai that had not given up though, and he had a pretty good idea who it was. He turned to his pupil, and tapped her suddenly with his staff. She flinched for a moment, but then saw that she now had the same protective barrier from the wind, “Clover! Go and help the ponies to safety! I’ve got to get that damned fool Hurricane out of the sky!” he said, yelling at the top of his lungs through the piercing wind. For a moment Clover opened her mouth as if to protest, but then she simply nodded. She knew that if anyone had a chance of stopping this storm, or an equally daunting challenge, getting Commander Hurricane to back down, it would be her master.

The old pony galloped furiously down the road, towards the Pegasus that was flying and diving in and out of the rapidly swirling thunderclouds. When he was just underneath he roared up at him, “Hurricane!! Commander Hurricane!!” he yelled as loud as he could, but piercing his voice through the howling wind was difficult. He continued to cry out to the Pegasus until finally catching his attention. Although Hurricane glanced his way, clearly noticing him, he flew back up into the clouds, resuming his pursuit of the rampant storm clouds. Starswirl aimed his horn at the Pegasus and it engulfed him in a glowing aurora of light, before teleporting him back down to the ground, just in front of Starswirl. Commander Hurricane had a determined and battle-ready look on his face. His body was surging with adrenaline as every muscle in his body was tensed and ached for action. For a moment, Starswirl thought that the warrior Pegasus was almost enjoying himself, “Commander Hurricane! Get the ponies on the ground to safety! Stay out of the storm clouds!” He yelled out. This was something any warrior Pegasus, especially a Pegasus like Hurricane, loathed to hear the most.

The Commander shook his head, cringing his teeth, “I’m not going to cut and run… not when there’s finally something here worthy of challenging me!” he cried out through the wind, and attempted to take off into the sky again.

Starswirl grasped Hurricane’s tail with his magic, inhibiting him from leaving, “Blast you fool, the ponies need you down HERE!” he replied out, not releasing the foolhardy Pegasus.

Commander Hurricane struggled to get free, “Damn it all! I’m not just going to let this magnificent storm get away from me!” he said, desperate to get back into the fight. His voice was deep and hoarse, every fiber in the warrior’s being telling him to fight, and the dark weather was his adversary.

The wind was picking up, and both of them were losing their patience. Starswirl pulled Hurricane down, and looked him square in the eyes, “Commander, my old friend, the storm will not best you, it is more important that you help the ponies here on the ground… there will be more foes for you to fight yet. But right now ponies’ lives depend on you, they need your help, they need you down here!” He said, looking deep into Hurricanes eyes, trying to snap him out of his battle trance. Starswirl’s words seemed to have worked, with a curse under his breath, Commander Hurricane flew off low to the ground, leading any stray ponies to shelter, and preventing them from being hit by the debris that was tumbling through the wind.

Starswirl stood steadfast in the eye of the storm. The clouds around him began to spiral, if he didn’t act soon, a funnel would form, and the Town of Mare’omer would be decimated. He took both of his hooves on his staff and planted it in front of him with a force that shook the ground, even among the roaring wind. The mage’s horn began to glow, dimly at first, but soon the light would encompass the pony himself. He looked up into the sky, the spiral was growing, and just above him he could see clear skies; the storm was spreading around the aura of his magic dome. Starswirl lifted his staff once more, and slammed it into the ground, a shock wave rumbled across the ground again. He took a deep breath, and he shouted into the sky in a booming voice, one that every pony a mile around would here reverberate through their very souls, “Lok…. VAH KOOR!!!” A beam of clear-blue energy shot up into the sky, violently piercing the storm. Just as the magical beam struck the level of the clouds, it exploded magnificently, a huge shock wave of magical power spread out along the level of the clouds. The display could be seen for miles, as the force of magic pushed the clouds away in all directions, until they completely ceased to exist; the sky above the whole of Equestria was completely clear. The initial explosion also spread out spherically, but it was more of a rumble of air, albeit one that each and every pony in the city would feel shake them to their very core. With the sky above him blue, Starswirl fell to his hooves, and then to his knees, the great feat of magic leaving him drained, yet triumphant against the colossal storm.

With the initial storm gone, Starswirl spent the next few days recovering from his magnificent magical feat. The entirety of the strange weather was not completely done for; however, the bulk of it had been completely dispersed, leaving only a few small, stray weather clouds that the Pegasus guard could easily handle on their own. On the third day, Starswirl emerged from his hovel feeling quite refreshed, aided by the look of the beautiful sunny day. With his strength restored, he began to believe that they had conquered the disturbance that the great dragon on the mountain had predicted which brought relief to him. He would once again, be proven wrong.

He walked down the street, enjoying the view of the ponies working together, today was the first day that there was hardly a single stray weather cloud in the sky, and it was glorious. He spotted his pupil walking down towards him with a smile on her face, “Good morning master! How are you feeling today?” she asked. She had been looking out for him since he collapsed in the town square three days ago.

Starswirl gave her a smile, “Better than I’ve ever felt my young pupil! Now you can stop worrying about me, and finally get outside to learn some more about magic!” He said enthusiastically, the old wizard giving her a chuckle as he walked down the busy street.

Clover shook her head at him, returning the smile, “But master I have my studies to catch up on!”

Starswirl simply waved her off with his hoof, “Bah… you remember what I told you about keeping your head in books all day young one” He said. He wouldn’t make her repeat it this time; the old pony was far too busy enjoying the new day. They were stopped by the Councilor Smart Cookie, to which Starswirl greeted him by bowing, “Hello Sir Councilor, what a pleasant surprise it is to see you out on this fine day!” He said, moving his beard aside before he bowed.

The councilor bowed in return, “It certainly is Starswirl the Bearded. And I should say it’s an honor to greet the hero of Mare’omer on such a fine day!”

This made Starswirl chuckle, “Oh well I wouldn’t say I’m a hero, I’d say my friend Commander Hurricane was quite a hero. I heard about all those ponies he saved from the collapsed building, now there’s a hero my boy!” He said nodding confidently.

“Actually… he’s the one who’s been calling YOU a hero. In fact we’d all be quite delighted if you’d join us at the castle” Cookie raised his head regally, “To formally invite you to a grand feast in your honor…” then he grinned, “…but just between you and me, I think it’s so Hurricane can apologize for being so hot-headed that day.” He said, chuckling and giving him a wink.

Starswirl’s eyes lit up, “Ohhh… The Grand Commander Hurricane apologizing, in that case I’ll definitely be there! Come along my pupil, you’ll want to see this!” he said, laughing along with Smart Cookie, as they practically skipped down the road to Castle.

The three entered the castle, and were greeted with beautiful decorations and a lively host of ponies. Not only where the councilors and their servants there, but the long tables of the great hall were filled with ponies from all over town. As they entered many turned and raised their glasses, cheering as they saw Starswirl and his pupil entering the grand hall. Starswirl bashfully smiled, and simply raised a hoof for them to calm down; the wizard was not used to such warm receptions. As he sat down on the opposite end of the long table of the councilors, several ponies walked by him, shaking his hoof, and chanting various thank you’s and blessings to the old unicorn. Starswirl gave them all a polite smile and a nod, trying to direct some of them to his pupil, whom he felt certainly deserved her share of the gratitude. At the head of the table was Councilor Platinum, wearing an elegant dress, as always. She gently tapped on her glass, ringing to gather the attention of all the gossiping and joyous ponies, “Blessed citizens of Mare’omer, I thank you all for coming to this grand feast, to honor this exceptional unicorn, who has shown us to be not only a first rate magician, but an example for pony-kind everywhere!” She said cheering; “really dear, I didn’t know you had such magical potential in you!” finished the elegantly dressed councilor. She cleared her throat before continuing, “But I digress, for this feast that we hold is in your honor. We the ponies of Equestria owe you our lives” She raised her glass with her magic, “And so we show you our gratitude… All hail, Starswirl the Bearded!” she said exuberantly.

All of the ponies lifted their glasses and repeated her, smiling towards the now timid wizard, “ALL HAIL STARSWIRL THE BEARDED!” They all sounded off.

Starswirl cleared his throat, “Thank you my friends, all of you, but we shouldn’t forget due credit where credit is due! For without the courage and bravery of the Pegasai soldiers and their leader to lead you to safety, we also might not be here. And so I raise my glass to you…” he looked at Commander Hurricane, whom had been strangely quiet this whole time, “… all hail, Grand Commander Hurricane! The most fearsome warrior in the land!” he said, copying Platinum’s exuberance. He nodded to the Commander, giving him a wink.

The Commander was a bit taken back by all of the positivity. And after all the ponies raised their glasses to him as well, he spoke up, “Oh poppy cock you old wizard… it’s no secret we’d all be washed away if it wasn’t for you…” he sighed, “…and I’d no doubt be washed away in my own ego…” he said mocking himself, looking down at the table shamefully.

Starswirl chuckled at him and gave him a warm smile, “Oh Hurricane… you never were good at apologies, but I guess that will have to do my old friend. Now, let us drink and be merry!” he said. To which all of the ponies cheered, and the down trodden commander finally cracked a smile and joined in the festivities.

The ponies would go on to party and enjoy the celebration until long into the night. While drinking and chatting amongst themselves, a sudden rumble was felt on the ground of the castle. It was a strong rumble, which shook the tables and glass dishes. As such, it made them all quiet down for a moment to ponder the strange feeling, however, soon after Smart Cookie grinned and spoke up, “That crazy Pudding Head… he must be putting on one hay of a parade outside!” He cried out, this of course made the guests chuckle and relax again. However the rumble was felt again, this time it seemed stronger than before. As the ponies tried to enjoy their food and drink amongst the occasional rumbling of the floor and tables, they were suddenly thrown off. In an instant, dishes, bookshelves, and chairs were flung around the room, a few of the bricks from the foundation of the castle jolted off, falling from the ceiling, leaving a trail of dust and mortar. Nopony, including Starswirl had time to react as they were abruptly flung onto the floor, unable to get their balance as they shook to and fro, spending half of their time trying to stand up, and the other half trying not to be hit by falling debris. There was a thunderous noise all around them, and they felt as if the castle would collapse on them any moment. With ponies scrambling around the room in fear, Starswirl’s staff had fallen off of his back and he was fumbling desperately to get at it.

The delegates and the guests had all managed to huddle in one corner of the great hall, as far away from the falling bricks and debris as they could. Just then there was a loud crackling sound. The stone roof overhead was giving in. They all looked up in horror, most ponies still couldn’t get their balance in the violent quake, and could hardly get away in time. Just as they felt their lives flashing before their eyes, the large slab of bricks stopped, inches above their heads. Starswirl’s horn was glowing with his magic, and he had caught the large, heavy slab of bricks with his power. He set it down out of the way of the ponies. Then he aimed his staff and his magic horn at the large group of ponies and lifted them all into the air with his magic. This way he moved them all out of harms away, creating a magic shield around them, to which any bricks or hazardous objects would bounce off of harmlessly.

After a few minutes of the violent earthquake, just as suddenly as it had come, it had gone. Starswirl set the ponies down gently. He looked over to his apprentice, “Clover, my dear, do as best you can to fix up this castle, it could still be unstable…” he said to her, before he took his staff and ran outside. He breathed a somewhat sigh of relief, for the damage that he saw was far less than he had imaged, and far less than what was felt inside the castle. A few of the larger buildings had cracked, a couple even had collapsed ceilings, but the smaller straw and mortar buildings looked like they were mostly, intact. Many of the stalls, along with the town ponies’ valuables were thrown about the streets, probably knocked around by the earthquake, or thrown out to create less hazards for the ponies inside their houses to be struck by. He ran around the main streets, checking any of the buildings that looked bad, many of the ponies had, rather smartly, come outside, and where wandering about, dazed and confused. Luckily, most of them seemed to have only minor injuries, which other ponies seemed to be attending to. Most of them, as well as Starswirl had their eyes on the newest addition to their town. This was a single large, long, jagged crack in the earth. It was an ugly gash in their town that the earthquake had taken to tear right down the middle of the main street. They were lucky that the terrible gash hadn’t been through some pony’s house.

As all the ponies gasped and awed at the great and terrible scar on their town, Starswirl felt compelled to look towards Mount Canterlot. The distant mountain looked as if it was still shaking in the distance, and a few large boulders could be seen falling from its lower steps. The boulders were no threat to anypony, but they did give Starswirl a rather heavy indicator of where the violent earthquake had originated from.

He spent the next few hours making sure that everypony was alright, and doing a few minor repairs around town. Eventually he saw his pupil Clover trotting to him from the castle, “Master, the castle is nearly fully repaired, it’s in no danger of collapsing” She said with relief on her face.

Starswirl looked at her, stroking his beard in his distinct inquisitive manner as he looked towards Mount Canterlot. Without saying a word, he trotted off to find Commander Hurricane.

“Starswirl, there are no major injuries among the townsfolk, it’s a miracle no one was killed. Now please tell me master wizard, that you have SOME idea what that was” Said the Commander as he emerged from helping ponies inside a cracked shop.

“That is precisely what I need your help discovering Commander. I would ask you sir, to borrow a carriage, led by two of your swiftest soldiers” said Starswirl firmly, Clover following him at his side. Hurricane knelt to him, before he took off, just a few seconds later, he returned with a flying carriage, the Commander himself pulling it.

“I am without a doubt the swiftest Pegasus in Equestria…” he grinned for a moment, then stood at attention, putting a serious look on his face, “I am at your command Master Starswirl!” he barked out. Starswirl and Clover hopped into the elegant black and gold carriage, and without delay, Commander Hurricane bolted off into the air.

“Commander, take us to the summit of Mount Canterlot” Starswirl said confidently, as Hurricane whooshed upward into the clouds, Clover looked over to Starswirl curiously, but he could read her concern, “My young student… we are going to find some answers…” He said with a determined look on his face. As they made their way up the mountain, Starswirl suddenly felt a drop in his heart. As he looked back at his beautiful Equestria, he couldn’t help feeling scared for her.

---

To be continued with, Chapter 3: The Black Death in the Sky, Numinex

Comments

[zeroxwolfx]

Chapter 3: Dragons, and the first death. That is all.

[Swift As Lightning]

Numinex? As in THE Numinex captured by Olaf One-eye at Dragons Breach Numinex?
... GOD I AM SUCH A NERD!
Anyway it's a good story so far.

[zeroxwolfx]

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