The wizard descended into the mist and slowly wound his way down the jagged path cut roughly into the side of the tor like a war wound. He made an easy pace on the treacherous ground, lest a rock come loose and cause the narrow defile to collapse. The frightened murmuring of the ponies gathering at the base of the hill grew louder, and several faint lanterns pierced the wall of fog, their light growing sharper and clearer all the while. The colt slung across his back groaned, and the entire way down Starswirl wondered whether the crowd would thank him or murder him.
When he saw dark shadows beyond the mist, they all froze. One timid voice called out, "Who goes there?!"
"It's only me," said Starswirl, "and a friend."
The anxious features of Lockhorn Plenty resolved from out of the murk. Starswirl slowly approached him and tried his best to appear non-threatening. When the farmer saw who was on his back, he gave a startled cry and rushed forward, but Starswirl held his hoof up. He got to his knees and let Junior climb off.
"Father," the colt croaked.
Lockhorn hugged him tight. "You gave me a terrible fright!"
"It's alright. Starswirl, he saved me from that....I don't rightly know what it is, but he saved me."
"Son, who took you out here? Was it that little minion of Orrin Tin's?"
Junior gulped. "Father, I--"
"Tell me, so's I can flay her alive! I swear I will. You're in no fit state to be out here, and whoever would leave you out here is a monster. Was it Golden Vein?"
Starswirl saw the trepidation on the young colt's face, but he suspected Lockhorn's love for his son and hate for Orrin Tin was blinding the farmer to it.
"Yes," the colt said, surely lying. "How did you know?"
Who are you covering for? thought Starswirl. A moment later he remembered the colt talking to Clover, and he had an inkling.
"Somepony went and painted all over the sign," Lockhorn said, "and Farmer Sprout found hoofprints made of paint leading away to the village. That filly's nothing but trouble, son. It comes from that mare who reared her. Treachery runs in the blood."
Starswirl mused on a few possible logical flaws that sequence of events offer, but kept his mouth shut. Lockhorn was blinded by a father's love and a spurned lover's hate, and poking holes in his preferred theory would likely land Starswirl in as much hot water with the farmer as he was in with Carmine.
"What brought you out here?" Starswirl asked the adults.
Still embracing his colt tightly, Lockhorn looked up at the wizard. "There were lights. They were so bright we could see them at the farmstead." He gazed down at his colt's face again and brushed the sweat-slicked mane away from Junior's eyes. "I went to check on Junior, only to see he wasn't in bed."
"It was Golden Vein," the colt lied, and badly at that. "She carried me out here. She was acting all nice, but it was a trick. Once she was gone, then that....that thing appeared and menaced me. But Starswirl came and he fought it off."
Lockhorn laid Junior gently down on the ground and rose up. "What brought you out here, Starswirl?"
Although Starswirl had no doubt the earth ponies suspected a unicorn at work, he had no desire to fan those flames. "The menace, I suppose you could call it, has taken to galloping through town and frightening ponies in their sleep, and out of it as well. I followed him up here and atop the tor."
"Galloping?" Lockhorn asked.
"Ayup, that sounds about right," Jack Apple called as he stepped out of the fog with Diamond Joe and several other townsponies in tow. "Two nights in a row it's been now that we've all heard it galloping through town."
"What is it?" a frightened farmer tittered.
"I don't rightly know," said Jack Apple. "But we all heard it, and when we rustled up enough ponies to figure that out, we found a paint trail leading into town and right to Gemma Stone's front door."
"One of Golden Vein's little minions," Lockhorn seethed.
With all the eyes on Jack, Starswirl took the opportunity to scan the faces of the newcomers. Was one of them the stallion? Had he doubled back to throw suspicion off of himself?
"It's a unicorn," one pony whispered.
"Perhaps," Starswirl said loudly, to divert their attention before fear took hold of them. "When I clashed with him, it could definitely have been a unicorn's magic. But I remind you, there are only three unicorns in town. Both Carmine and Clover were fast asleep when I left." His eyes flicked to Junior, who hurriedly avoided them. "And I, obviously, couldn't have done it, because I was fighting against it."
"An illusion!" a pony called.
"Now that ain't fair!" Junior said sharply, surprising everypony. "Mister Starswirl saved me, and I'd know if I was being tricked."
"My colt is right," Lockhorn said sternly. "And I'll hear no more accusations, you hear me? Right now it's late and Junior needs to go home. I'll decide what to do about Golden Vein in the morning, you hear?"
One by one, the earth ponies gave their acknowledgment, every single one of them hesitantly. Starswirl tipped his hat and started to follow Jack Apple, but was struck by a sudden dizzy spell and nearly toppled over.
"Not you," Lockhorn said.
As Starswirl rubbed the wooziness from his eyes and tried to remain upright, he swung around and saw Lockhorn walking up to him. The farmer reached out with a foreleg, and for a brief moment Starswirl thought he was going to be hit. But Lockhorn's hoof stopped in mid-air.
"I owe you my thanks," he said.
The wizard's half-asleep brain finally realized the pony wanted to shake his hoof, and extended his own. Lockhorn's vigorous forelimb pumping nearly unbalanced Starswirl, but he retained his footing.
"You don't look in any fit state to be walking back to the village," the farmer said. "The farmstead is just down the road. Sheltering you is the least I could do."
When one door closes, he thought, another opens.
He looked out over the countryside, wondering if Clover had indeed been out on Bothrin Tor and hoping that she'd make it home alright, because he had almost no chance of finding her in this weather.
"It ain't much," Lockhorn said as he opened the door, "but it's home."
Starswirl followed him and Junior, balanced on his father's back, into the darkened farmstead. In the faint mist-laden light coming through the open door, Lockhorn groped around on a hall table for a lantern, and then fumbled around with it.
"Allow me," Starswirl said.
He sent magic surging into his horn and sent a lick of flame floating through the air. Lockhorn followed it, his eyes wide, as if it would suddenly veer towards him and set him on fire. But Starswirl guided it to the candle wick sitting in the lantern's glass box. As the soft flicker of the light glowed on Lockhorn's face, he mumbled a few nervous words of gratitude.
"You're nervous about my powers," Starswirl said. It was not a question. "Yet in court you defended me most vociferously."
"I ain't nervous," Lockhorn said, turning away to hide his blush. "Just reminded me of something, that's all."
"I'm sorry," the wizard said. "I won't use them again."
The ochre pony led him down the hall, and swung a door open, revealing a reasonably nice, though slightly dusty guest bedroom.
"Well, here it is," Lockhorn said. "Make yourself at home. I'll be calling on some of the other farmowners after breakfast so's we can discuss this...."
"Pony in the night?"
He nodded. "And Golder Vein and that coward of a father she's got. I'd like you there, too. For....advice. You seem to know a lot about this sort of thing, so...."
"I'd be honored."
Lockhorn nodded again, plainly at a loss for anything else to say. He gulped as he stared at Starswirl, who tilted his head ever so slightly.
"Well, goodnight," Lockhorn announced abruptly.
He shut the door so quick Starswirl didn't have time to respond. He strolled to the window and parted the red curtains to peer out into the night, but the fog pressed against the window thicker than ever, to the point where he could barely make out the barn next to the farmstead. He went to the bed and brushed a thin layer of dust off, then climbed on top of it and nestled down to sleep, his thoughts turning in his head.
He could sense things were going to start happening very, very quickly.