Chapter 1
Star Swirl the Bearded looked out of his window and down into the countryside below. Most of the unicorn houses and buildings were built into the side of a mountain, leaving the earth ponies to the valley beneath them and the pegasi to the skies above. The conflict between the tribes rose to the front of his mind, escaping as an exasperated sigh. There was said to be a meeting between the leaders of the three tribes coming soon, and Star Swirl hoped that this would bring an end to the quarreling.
But, unfortunately, it was hard to wipe doubt from his mind.
Snow was coming down in dense sheets, blanketing the ground in white in a never ending blizzard that divided the already segregated ponies further and further. The earth ponies in their huts shiver in the cold and pull their cloaks tight against themselves while Star Swirl watched with anguish.
He had told Clover to alert Princess Platinum that this might be the work of Windigos, but her majesty was never big on listening to “peasants” such as him.
Chancellor Puddinghead and Commander Hurricane were said to be just as stubborn. This did not bode well for that future meeting.
The old wizard turned from the window, running a hoof through his long, flowing, sparkling white beard as he moved down onto a lower level of his library home. His house was lined with scrolls and books of all shapes, sizes and lengths, all written by himself, of course. There was a shelf for other ponies’ works, but that particular section gathered a bit more dust than the others.
He busied himself by pulling a scroll off of his shelf in a burst of white telekinetic magic. Dull, grey eyes scanned over his words, judging everything from sentence structure to how the penmanship looked. He pointed his horn at the fireplace in the far corner of the room, which burst with life and heat even without any logs or kindling. The spell wouldn’t last long, but he was getting old, and it was getting harder and harder to weather the wintry hatred between the tribes.
Suddenly, his front door burst open, sending a swirl of white snow in with it. A young mare wandered in, covered only in a hooded robe that barely even concealed her horn. The mare had a shamrock green coat and a minty mane that fell down the back of her neck in a neat and tidy little cascade. Large, light pink eyes, with a warm softness even in the hateful cold, scanned the room meeting the old unicorn's gaze. Her horn was small for an average unicorn, much smaller than Star Swirl’s horn. Beneath her cloak and emblazoned upon her flank was a small, bright green four-leaf clover.
“Ah, Clover the Clever. How nice of you to join me today.” Star Swirl said with a jocular smile.
She closed the door with a pinkish aura and a weak grin on her face. “I’m so sorry I’m late, Star Swirl, sir. All this snow has made it very hard to move about the mountains. Not only that, but the Princess has been a bit needier than usual.” She made a small bow to him, a gesture few gave to him these days, while still being something he loved.
“It’s quite alright, my dear Clover. Come in, come in, warm yourself by the fire.” As if it had heard him, the fire spell ran out, only to burst into a brighter flame than before with a wave of his horn.
Clover bowed again, a genuine smile upon her face as she walked over to the fireplace and extended her hoofs to it.
The old stallion looked around his home, his smile fading as his mind returned to the thought of the blizzards outside.
“Star Swirl?” Clover asked with her head tilted, “Are you all right, sir?”
"Yes, my dear." He responded with quickness. "Well, yes and no, unfortunately. Have you never noticed how divided each tribe is?"
She tilted her head, hooves thawing in the warm blaze. "What do you mean, sir?"
Star Swirl had returned to his windowsill, looking through the now blinding storm building outside. "Just look at us, Clover. Our people, we ponies, were meant to be together, to work together. How can we live with the earth ponies on the ground and us up in our castles in the mountains, not to mention the pegasi floating up in the sky? It all seems.. unnatural, unwarranted, unnecessary." He shook his head in impotent anger. "I've just never cared for it."
Clover, unprepared for his existentialism but still quick on her hooves, sent a rebuttal. "Well, I'm sure that the Princess and the other leaders will make put an end to it soon. They're having a meeting, you know, I think... next week, maybe, between the three tribes." The mare pulled her hood down, gave her mane a little shake as it fell down her neck.
"Mm, yes, so I've heard." Star Swirl rolled his ancient eyes, still returning his focus to the ponies below, lost in the white.
Clover glanced about the room, expecting her lessons in magic to have begun by that point. "So, um, Sir Star Swirl, not to pry or anything like that, but, um, can we begin our lessons now?"
“Mm, of course, my dear." Another aged sigh escaped from him. "Clover, do you recall what I have told you of the power of love?”
Clover’s green face turned a bright shade of red with this comment, stumbling over her words. “Uh, um, well, you, uh, you said that love is, um, one of the, er, m-most powerful types of magic, r-right… Star Swirl, s-s-sir?”
“That’s right, Clover. But it’s not just love that possesses great power. Most, if not all magic stems from one emotion or another. That is why creatures such as Windigos and Changelings feed off of emotions.”
Her blushing faded, as she knew he was being very serious. She recalled her studies of Changelings from one of the many wonderful scrolls and tomes lining the walls.
“What, then, is the opposite of love, Clover?” He finally turned to her, his grey orbs meeting her pink ones.
The mare pensively thought a bit before responding. “Hatred?”
“Precisely. Hatred and fear are the opposites of love and happiness. But there is a very, VERY significant difference. Hate is for the weak, as love means forgiveness and acceptance, and those can be very hard for a pony to do. The powers of love and friendship are very potent and powerful magics. But hatred is easy to tap into and can be just as strong.”
She blinked her pink eyes at him. “Why do you tell me this, sir?”
He turned to his books and scrolls. “There is one thing that I have yet to write in any book, Clover the Clever. It is a secret I can trust only to you.”
He closed his eyes, a thin trail of purple smoke suddenly pouring out of them, his horn turning black as night and becoming covered in ethereal purple pustules. Clover stood up in shock and confusion. His eyes then burst open, revealing nothing but an eerie green glow. A large pulse of black lightning exploded from the end of his horn, trailing behind it the same purple bubbles as before until it struck the ground, turning it black and dark, as if it sucked the happiness straight out of it.
Star Swirl lowered his head, the purple smoke ceasing from his eyes, and he lowered himself slowly, trying vainly for the strength to stay up. Clover couldn’t help but stare at the floor, watching as little purple bubbles inflated and ruptured on the ground. She slowly looked up at him.
“S-S-Star S-S-Swirl, uh, s-sir?” She stammered, words failing her briefly, “What w-w-was that?”
He took a deep sigh, regaining his stamina. “Pure hate, my dear. Untainted with compassion, tempered in anguish, simple, nasty, despicable hate.”
She put her hoof to it for a brief moment, lifting it to the fireplace for light. Shadows dripped from it like a thick molasses, little bubbles of loathing foaming in the shadowy oil slick. She shook her hoof in disgust, little blobs of darkness sprinkling everywhere.
“EUGH!” She shrieked, “Ick, that’s disgusting!”
“I’m aware. This is very horrible magic. It is incredibly powerful and easy to access. This day and age, I feel like everypony has some hatred towards somepony else.”
“Is this why you’re telling me this, Star Swirl? You want me to prevent ponies from utilizing this magic?”
He tilted his head in a shrug. “I suppose, to an extent. I want to teach you how to use this magic because, well, I know you, Clover my dear. You will not succumb to the allure of hatred. Your heart is far too pure for that.”
She turned a deep shade of red, pulling her head down and batting her eyes. “Aw, Star Swirl. You’re too kind to me, sir.”
“Only because it’s true, my dear. I would not trust this power with anypony else.” He stared into the puddle of blackness in pensiveness. “But not only that, there is much hatred in this world. This power could destroy the other tribes if put into the wrong hooves. It’s dangerous, malicious and destructive. I trust you to protect this secret and keep it safe from all other unicorns, lest they discover this power and attempt to shatter the earth ponies and pegasi.”
He turned away from her, dancing around the issue in his mind for too long. “Most importantly, to be perfectly blunt, I am getting too old, my dear. I’ve lived a long and glorious life, but I am the last unicorn to know how to control hate magic. This art will die with me if I can’t pass it on. I can’t chance it to write it down in one of my many, amazing scrolls. I must only entrust this knowledge upon a pony I have the utmost confidence in. That is why this trust falls upon you, Clover the Clever.”
Clover was practically in tears, hooves to her face, trying to brush away the sorrow from her eyes. “Oh, Star Swirl!” She rushed over to him, wrapping him in her embrace, tears streaming down her face and onto his azure coat. “Thank you so much for telling me this! Thank you for TRUSTING me so! I… I don’t know what to say!” She began bawling onto his shoulder, leaving him wide-eyed, practically stunned with bewilderment.
“Uh, eh, there there, Clover.” He patted her shoulder with a weary hoof. “It’ll be all right, my dear. It’s ok.” She continued to weep on him for a few minutes. Every time she came close to stopping, she would start back up in a complete blithering sob. His face scrunched with seriousness. “All right, Clover. That’s enough. You’re wrinkling my beard.”
She quickly pulled away from him with red eyes and flushed cheeks. “Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry, Star Swirl. I… I just got very emotional. It really, really, REALLY means the world to me that you are doing this!”
He straightened his beard with a magical white glow. “Yes, well, that’s all right, just promise me not to do it again.”
She nodded with the fast intensity of a hummingbird. “Never again, sir. A thousand apologies for your beard.”
“Yes, yes. Well, then.” He sighed, heaving his chest slightly. “Would you like to begin with our training?”
She wiped her eyes with an aura-imbued tissue. “Training on hate magic, sir?”
“What else? No time like the present, I suppose.”
She threw the tissue to the side, shook her head to clear it of thoughts, focusing upon her master with an eager but serious stare. “Whenever you are, Master Star Swirl.”
He smiled gently. “That’s what I like to hear, Clover.”
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“The rest, as you know, is history. I went on to found Equestria, by Princess Platinum’s side, of course, with the other tribes and their respective leaders. Our land has prospered under the ruling of Princesses Celestia and Luna, and the woes and past troubles of the warring tribes have faded like a distant memory.”
Clover was older then. Her mane had grown white and her face had been drawn with many lines of age. Her pink eyes still radiated warmth, but her frame was flimsy with brittle bones and her age had left her bound to a chair she moved the telekinetic power of her horn. She rocked back and forth in her chair, almost out of habit, eyes staring through rose-tinted glasses off into the past, thinking about her master. She sat in a library, her library, amassed of not only her works but mostly of Star Swirl’s pieces, stacked high to the tall ceiling that not even the ladders could reach. It was said that Star Swirl’s work would soon be transferred to its own wing in Canterlot were it would find permanent residence. A unicorn sat before her, listening intently to her every word, watching with admiration her every movement.
“Star Swirl the Bearded, of course, was only mortal, and passed away shortly after Equestria was formed. It’s sad to think that he could never see this land in its prime.” Her eyes filled with gentle tears, and she shook them away quickly, turning her pink eyes instead to her unicorn apprentice.
“I tell you this, my star apprentice, because, like Star Swirl back, I too am getting old. I have kept this secret power of hatred from the world for my whole life, and, again like Star Swirl, I will entrust you to carry it on.”
She gingerly removed herself from the chair, slowly approaching her apprentice, her limbs struggling to hold her up. He rushed over to help her, only for her to raise a hoof in protest. “Thank you, my dear. You truly have been a great apprentice, and you shall make an amazing magician. I trust you the way my mentor trusted me.”
She patted his shoulder. “I know this must be a lot to take in, but what do you say? Will you take up the secret power of hatred, Sombra?”
The black-coated colt with red and green eyes nodded with a wide smile. “Anything for you, Master Clover. You can count on me.”
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