The Epic of Starswirl the Bearded
Chapter 3: The Back Death in the Sky: Numinex
“Do you remember what I told you about it my son?” asked the old unicorn to a young colt.
“You said it wasn’t just there to light the way at night, but It was something else too,” said the young colt.
The old unicorn nodded, “Yes my son, the moon not only lights the way for us at night, but it lights the way for us to magic.”
“To magic?” asked the colt.
“Yes my son, to magic. For you see, the moon itself is magic. Some have even said that the magic of all the world comes from the moon.”
“Do you think that’s where the magic comes from sir?” asked the curious colt.
The old unicorn smiled to him and nodded gently, “I do young one. In fact I believe that she has her own spirit that guides us during the dark times in our lives.”
He awoke with a tremor. The old wizard looked around for a moment, the clouds where flying past them as he and his pupil climbed the slope of the mountain steadily. The swift Commander Hurricane could fly to the top of the mountain in an hour by himself, but it would take him just a bit longer with the addition of his cargo. At this moment, something struck the mind of Clover the Clever, “Master Starswirl… why didn’t we just fly up by carriage the first time?” she asked suddenly, wondering why she hadn’t asked him sooner.
Starswirl looked at her blankly, his mind occupied by other thoughts, “Hmm? Oh, I suppose I was hoping we would learn a profound lesson by making the long and tedious journey up the mountain ourselves.”
Clover’s jaw went agape for a moment, “And just what was that profound lesson master?!” She asked with a look of disbelief on her face.
Starswirl turned his head for a moment, as if he was thinking about it. Then he spoke confidently, “… that it is much quicker just to fly up the mountain.” This of course simply made Clover facehoof and sigh.
Hurricane neared the entrance to the great cave at the peak of the mountain. Just as before, they felt the gust of warm air hit them in stark contrast to the coldness of the mountain air. They landed on the ledge leading to the mouth of the cave, “What’s in there old man?” asked Commander Hurricane with a rarely seen bit of curiosity. Starswirl however did not answer, as he strode with haste in his step into the cave, Hurricane catching up close behind him, along with his pupil. The cave was expectantly dark, with no source of light as they strode in. Just as Starswirl came to where the Great Dragon had laid, he stopped dead in his tracks, a look of dread coming over his face.
“Bones? You brought us up here for bones?” asked Commander Hurricane with a perplexed look on his face. Starswirl took a few steps closer, illuminating the room of the cave with his staff. His eyes were wide with fear and disbelief.
“No… this isn’t supposed to be here…” He paced around the pile of perfectly clean dragon bones, exactly the same size and shape to fit the great dragon that he had seen before. The wizard was frantic as he paced around the pile of bones, he searched his mind for an answer, but he could come up with nothing, “This has to be some sort of trick… he should still be here!” he couldn’t keep his frustration bottled up anymore, “No…” he uttered again in defeat.
The meeting of the Great Dragon of the Earth Bones had been the most divine experience Starswirl the bearded had ever had, and was more than likely the closest anypony had come to the divine since the dawn of creation. Starswirl did not understand exactly what this great beast was, but he knew he was no mere mortal. He couldn’t explain how he knew either, he could feel it. Just as he could sense the presence of magic, he sensed something far greater in the soul of the creature that once lay before him. If he had to put a word to it, the only fitting name to call such a presence would be a “God”. But his eyes did not deceive him; the former dragon of the earth was no more. The fact that this dragon was not only gone, but possibly destroyed is what disturbed him the most, for what manner of being could possibly lay waste to a god? The mage was once again at a loss of what to do. He felt helpless against the greater forces at work, and he felt helpless to offer his people the answers that they sought. And once more, he felt saddened by the loss of the great dragon. During his entire encounter with him, he had sensed only goodness in his heart, perhaps more so than any mortal pony he had encountered in his life.
Commander Hurricane sensed Starswirl’s uncertainty, “Well what now sir?” he asked plainly.
Starswirl paced some more, shaking his head, “I don’t know. I don’t know! I DON’T KNOW BLAST IT ALL!” He cried out in frustration, “I… don’t know…” he said again quietly.
The commander approached Starswirl and put a hoof on his shoulder, “Master wizard!” he said in a harsh tone for a moment, getting his attention. Then he spoke in a more understanding tone, “Starswirl, we aren’t going to get answers standing around here staring at a corpse. Let us return to Mare’omer, there are still ponies that need our help. At the very least, we can protect them much better down there than we can all the way up here.”
Starswirl was calmed down from his nervous state thanks to the help of the Commander. He looked around the cave once more before he nodded to him, “You’re right. It appears we will no longer find the answers here. Let’s be off Commander”. He took a deep breath, and trotted out of the cave the way he had come in. Just before they took off from the ledge of the mountain, Starswirl took one last sorrowful look into the cave.
Upon returning, Starswirl was met with a reception of a legion of Commander Hurricane’s soldiers, as well as Smart Cookie and some of his servants. Cookie was waiting anxiously, and galloped up to Starswirl once he departed from his carriage, “Starswirl! Please tell me you were able to get to the bottom of this wild weather,” he asked desperately.
Starswirl however could only shake his head, he looked to the ground with a disappointed look on his face, “No, I was not able to find the origin of our problems” He looked off into the distance, the memory of seeing the dead dragon still fresh in his mind, “But I did learn something about them” he asked quietly. He waited for a moment before turning to Smart Cookie with a dire look on his face, which hinted at the terror that he had faced back in the cave, “I don’t believe that our situation will be improving any time soon. In fact, I believe it will get much worse.”
Smart Cookie did not look moved by the terror in Starswirl’s eyes, but instead he looked more determined, “What can we do?” he asked bravely.
Starswirl came out of his state of fear, he took a deep breath before he trotted over to Smart Cookie, “You can help everypony in town fortify their houses, make sure they clear their houses of any objects that might fall. In fact, I think it’s best to get as many of the villagers into the castle…”
He was interrupted by Clover the Clever, “But master, that castle nearly killed us last time, what if there’s another earthquake?” She asked fearfully.
Starswirl kept pacing, “I believe for whatever disaster we are to face next, the castle will be the safest place to be, off you go then!” He said waving a hoof at Smart Cookie, and him and his servants took off. Starswirl turned to the Pegasus soldiers of Commander Hurricane, “Fly to all the villages and towns in Equestria, warn them to fortify themselves, if they don’t have a castle or bunker, tell them to build one! And tell them to… prepare themselves, as best they can. Oh yes of course, bring all of the farming communities outlying our town into the keep, they’ll be better protected within the boundaries of the city. Fly my friends, quickly!” He said with haste. The pegasai soldiers saluted him quickly before swiftly taking off to their duties.
Clover turned to him, “Do you think this will work master? Do you think… that we have a chance at preventing whatever disaster is to come?” he asked frightfully.
“I don’t think we can prevent whatever storm is to come our way my student. I think all we can do now is prepare, and hope that that is enough,” he said ominously.
A strong quake was felt as they stood there in wonder. They braced themselves, fearing another earthquake was eminent, but the earth did not shake again. The sound of shrieking ponies caught there attention. Several ponies were running in terror out of the farm fields, Pegasus soldiers flew away, some carrying farmers on their backs. Soon it became apparent what they were all fleeing from. Coming over the horizon was a great firestorm. The entirety of the farmlands was ablaze, the fire easily consuming the vast farmlands quickly. They were struck by the wave of heat from the fire. From an unknown source, a blast of fire shot out from the inferno of the fields, striking one of the houses. The burning blaze of the fire however, did not do justice to what they saw next. All of the ponies looked up, as the very sun was blotted out.
With a terrible roar, a great beast flew up high over Mare’omer, its wings spread wide, like encroaching death, reaching out to suffocate the life out of all whom it touched. The beast’s scaly hide was sharp and jagged like swords, and it was black as night, black as the shadow of fears. The creature was completely black, save for its white underbelly. This beast was in such stark contrast to the Dragon of the Earth Bones, that it seemed a perversion to call them a beast of the same breed. But he was just as massive, and thrice as terrible. The great dragon descended, extending his bat-like wings further until he dropped closer to the terrified ponies below him, stopping a few hundred feet in the air. The ponies could all see now, his eyes were red as the pits of Tartarus, the very sight of the great dragon sent chills up the spine of everyone, they were staring into the face of destruction.
He opened his garish maw and spoke, with the same power that the great dragon of the earth had spoken, except his voice was more hoarse and raspy, and commanded fear into the small forms below him, “Look at these creatures, so small. What an abomination it is to let such weakness roam the earth unchecked!” He spread his wings wide again, lifting up his massive, black horned head, “I will make you know the power of Numinex! Look upon me with terror you poor mortal souls! For this is the hour of your doom and the doom of all things!”
All of the ponies were too stricken with fear to move. With that, the terrible dragon opened his maw again, this time to expel streams of blue-hot fire, which quickly turned to red as it coated the ground, and the buildings below him. This of course snapped the ponies out of their fear trance, as they all went running and screaming in terror, trying to find some sort of escape from the dragons fire. Numinex took off high into the sky, bellowing his flames all around him in the air. The Pegasus solders that had come back looked to their leader for orders, many of them still shaking. Hurricane, whom was also quite terror-struck by the dragon looked to them commandingly, “1st Platoon Soldiers! Help Starswirl put out those fires, and get everypony you can to the castle!” He yelled out above the sound of the blazing fires, and screaming townsfolk. After he spoke this he began to fly up into the air.
In that moment Starswirl’s eyes shone with fear and he used is magic to once again grab Hurricane by the tail stopping him, “And where are you going you fool!?”
Hurricane turned around to glare at Starswirl, “I’m going to distract that thing so you can get the villagers to safety, and save the city from burning down!” he cried out.
Starswirl shook his head, “Hurricane you bloody fool you don’t stand a chance against that him! Stay here you…” he was cut off by the commander
“If I don’t go he’ll burn everyone alive! The ponies need YOU here Starswirl… and they need me up there… Now put out those damn fires old man!” He yelled out.
In his mind, he knew Commander Hurricane was right; the Pegasus wouldn’t be able to stop the flames as well as he could. With a look of great sorrow in his eyes, Starswirl reluctantly let go of Hurricane’s tail. The great dragon swooped down close to the ground again, spitting his great flaming breath onto the town; “You and your constructs burn so easily little equines!” he laughed terribly as he rose up again, “Hardly are you fitting sport for my teeth, how pathetic!” The terrified Pegasus guards looked to Starswirl now for leadership. He pointed out the burning houses to them and shouted to them. They flew off to try and gust away the great fires. Starswirl and his pupil ran to the farmlands, to put out the greater of the infernos, for all he knew, there could still be farmers trapped inside. The black dragon continued to breathe his fire in the air, but the earth ponies below had stuffed as many villagers as they could into the castle, the others were taking shelter from the flames as best they could. It took Starswirl and his pupil a while to banish the great fires in the farmlands, but they had managed to save a few wayward farmers, as their houses were surrounded by the hellfire. However, the greatest challenge would not be Starswirl to put out the dragon’s fire; it would be the challenge that lay in front of Commander Hurricane.
The Pegasus flew furiously into the sky, until the found himself at the tail of the great black dragon. The presence of such a colossal beast made his blood boil, and his warrior spirit come to its surface. He jetted forward and kicked at the upper base of the dragon’s tail. Numinex looked behind him, a bit confused, but he scoffed off the Pegasus, “What is this petty thing? It bothers me… be gone…” he roared out in his formidable, bombing voice. The dragon kept flying forward and gave a heavy swing of his large spiked tail. Commander Hurricane was able to pull backwards in time, but he still kept in hot pursuit of the dragon. The commander flew up to quickly grab a loose cloud from the sky, after swirling it together, it bucked it hard. A large bolt of lightning arched out of it, and struck the back of the black dragon. This made Numinex stop dead in his tracks, and turn around to fully face his assailant. The full glory of the dragon was now facing Hurricane; the sight even made him wince for a moment, before his warrior spirit kicked in again, making him regain his composure, “Defiant little insect! Could death not come soon enough for you?” he roared out angrily. He opened his maw and show out a torrent of fire straight to Hurricane. The Pegasus cried out, and began to beat his wings furiously, causing heavy, powerful gusts of air to fly forward, and hold back the dragons flame just short of burning him. As the dragon stopped breathing fire, Hurricane took the opportunity to fly in close to him, and give another powerful beat of his wings, the wave of air struck the dragon, making him flinch only slightly. The dragon gave what looked like a smirk through his jagged teeth, before he too gave a powerful beat of his bat-like wings. His gust of air was far more powerful than Hurricane’s, and it caused him to tumble a hundred feet through the air before he regained his stance. At this point the Pegasus was panting, and growling out with anger and adrenaline rushing through him.
The dragon began to fly away from the wind swept Pegasus, before the commander flew in close to him again, “DON’T YOU FLY AWAY FROM ME DRAGON!” the Pegasus was panting hard with anger, his where wide and bloodthirsty, like a cornered beast, “IM NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!” he cried out through the air. Hurricane flew up to the clouds again, and began to stomp on the surface of them rapidly. A few of the lightning strikes it Numinex before he lifted his wing to protect himself. The dragon bellowed out a large stream of fire into the clouds, dispersing them. Out of the ring of fire sped a furious Commander Hurricane, diving down in a streak of blue thunder, and striking the dragon square in the chest. The dragon cried out in anger, and swung his wing into the air, striking Hurricane and sending him for a tumble. But in less than a second, the proud Pegasus was up again, and circling the dragon, firing off his heavy blasts of air with his powerful wing beats. The rapid gusts of air were causing the great dragon to wobble slightly in the air. Infuriated at this, he began shooting his fire breath out in all directions, without rhyme or reason, causing the air around them to heat up immensely.
The rapid beating of Hurricane’s wings was taking its toll on him, and they were beginning to grow weak. He abandoned this technique, and instead dove around and behind the dragon, kicking him in his back, his legs, or wherever his head and claws should so happen not to be at the moment. He kept up his agile maneuvers for as long as he could, but eventually his luck ran out, and the dragon smacked him again hard with his claw. Hurricane flew through the air, more dazed, and weary this time. The dragon, who did not look so much as winded, noticed this, and bellowed out a pillar of smoke as he laughed, “Such a hope you have little mortal!” then his smile turned into a snarl, “I loathe hope… be gone weakling!” Hurricane looked at the massive dragon before him. Panting, he felt another rush of adrenaline hit him. Hurricane knew that this was the first time he was fighting for more than his own glory. This was the first time he was not concerned whether or no death met him in battle. He knew that his friends, his family and everything he loved back home was depending on him. Commander Hurricane charged towards the dragon head-on, striking him firmly in the stomach. The dragon had winced, but reacted quickly, smacking him again with his claw. Before the commander could be tossed away, Numinex caught him in his teeth-coated maw, grasping down firmly and shaking him around in the air, before he let him go. The limp body of the Pegasus dropped to the ground, into the burnt fields below him.
At long last, the buildings in town where safe from the fire. The badly damaged ones were left smoldering, smoking heaps. The farm fields had also been put out, and its residence promptly evacuated to the town center. Many ponies had burns and injures, but they were lucky, as they would all recover, and no one was injured beyond repair. As Starswirl tended to the last of the fires, he looked up into the distance of the sky, to see the battle with the dragon. If it wasn’t for Commander Hurricane, the damage would have been much worse, and somepony may have lost their lives. Starswirl took off in full gallop, storming to the field below the dragon as fast as he could. As he watched from a distance, his eyes widened with horror. Below the dragon, a blue Pegasus could be seen falling to the ground. “What a shame mortal… you would have made a good slave…” heard Starswirl from the dragon, before he saw him flying off into Mount Canterlot. Starswirl charged as fast as he could towards the fallen Pegasus, the dragon hardly even a thought in his mind. He approached the motionless body of the Pegasus and slowed down before coming to him. Starswirl dropped to his hind legs, looking down with horror and distress at what he saw. The body of Commander Hurricane was broken, and no amount of magic could cure the damage that had been done. And yet the Pegasus moved his head slightly, he was not dead just yet.
“I die… with… my eyes open…” was all he was able to utter, before his head dropped, and he drifted off into the eternal sleep.
Starswirl knelt there, looking over the body of his dead friend. Tears began to stream from his face. He had witness such a tragedy that nopony should ever have to see. Soon after he took the body of the Pegasus in his arms, and the others, Smart Cookie, and Clover the Clever approached them, silenced by what they saw. Starswirl held his friend close, looking up to the sky as his heart throbbed in agony. His throat was dry, as he felt the chokehold of his emotions strangle him. He continued to shed tears, his body feeling weak, and troubled at such a loss. This was the first time that Starswirl had ever felt truly hopeless. What pony could ever stand up to such a horror? What pony could stop such a monster that had no regards for life? Starswirl knelt there for a long while in silence with his friends, as he wept over the loss of his dear friend, and the greatest Pegasus warrior that would ever soar in the skies.
As the wizard sat there motionless, eventually the Pegasus solders came to him. They removed their helmets, and knelt before the wizard, treating the body of their Commander as gently as a newborn foal. They trembled with sadness, but fought hard to keep their faces straight, as they flew away with his body. They knew that he would expect no less of them. All of the other ponies were still too studded, too saddened to speak. Starswirl turned around, to see the burnt lands of his home. It was a good picture to match his sorrow, and despair. As he lowered his head, a strange thing happened just then. The light of the sun had pierced through the clouds and given Starswirl a feeling of warmth. It was a feeling that made him lift his head, and shed his last tear. It was as if in that one ray of light, someone had lifted up his chin, and given him a beacon of hope. Now as he looked into his city, he didn’t see the smoldering buildings, or charred fields. Now when he looked upon it, he saw every pony helping each other, friends, family, and loved ones working together. He saw hope.
The wizard turned around and looked towards Mount Canterlot with a twinkle in his eyes. Clover the Clever went to him, setting a hoof on his shoulder. Starswirl planted his staff in the ground and spoke firmly, “Clover my dear… I think Numinex has stayed here in Equestria quite long enough…”
To be continued with, Chapter 4: The Element of Destruction