Special Illumination

by ponichaeism

CHAPTER VI: Old Wounds

"Lockhorn and Beryl?"

Carmine snorted as he turned to the stovetop over the hearth, where sizzling pancakes were being flipped by a spatula with a red aura. He leaned over the hearth slightly, flinching from the heat, and yelled "Clover!" up into the metal chimney pipe. Then he glanced over his shoulder at Starswirl again.

"Wasn't between them so much as...."

Seeing Starswirl's puzzled face, Carmine nodded at the metal pipe going up through the ceiling.

"Her bed's right next to the chimney. Keeps her warm in the winter. Little bit, anyway."

"Ah," Starswirl said, nodding.

"Anyway, it was all Lockhorn, what I hear. This was long before I moved here, but in a town this small, even I hear big gossip like that. Apparently, he chased her quite a bit when they were young, but she wasn't ever interested. Drove quite a wedge between him and Orrin when they married."

"Were they close?" Starswirl asked while magicking the freshly steaming kettle off the hearth. "Orrin and Lockhorn?"

Carmine shrugged. "Heck if'n I know. Never asked. Why's their business so important to you, anyway? If'n you're overcome with a desire to know them better, I'd recommend against it."

"Ah, ha ha, no. I just couldn't help but notice their rather spirited arguing last night."

"Love'll do that to a pony," said Carmine. "I'm living proof. I love my little filly...."

The foal in question half-tumbled down the stairs, her eyes mostly shut.

"....but I'll be darned if'n she don't make me blow my lid all the more for it," he finished with a warm smile.

"Morning, everypony," Clover mumbled.

"You slept right through the commotion," Carmine said.

She yawned. "Whassat?"

"There was a fire at Golden Vein's house," Starswirl explained as he poured three cups of tea and added a dash of honey.

"Really?" she asked, brightening considerably. "And I missed it? Why didn't you wake me?"

Carmine frowned at her. "Don't you talk like that, Clover, especially in front of the townfolk. They're angry enough, and Orrin Tin said he'd run us all out of town."

"But we didn't do a thing--"

Carmine slammed a hoof on the floorboards. "I don't want to hear it. Discussion's ended. Mister Starswirl was kind enough to fetch some water from the well, which he seems to have a knack for after doing it so much. So you go on outside and wash up, you hear?"

Clover gritted her teeth and seethed, then trotted out the front door in a huff.

After a moment's silence, Starswirl asked, "Carmine, what, ahem, would you like me to do today?"

Carmine stared at a calendar hanging on the wall. "I'll hafta go to Cornish Fields. I've a feeling Lockhorn will try and cheat me out of my shares if'n I send you over, especially after last night." He scoffed. "I break my back on my ledger, making sure everypony gets back exactly what they sent me--minus my miller's toll, of course--and they'll stop at nothing to cheat me out of a fair deal. The irony is enough to drive a pony to madness."

He shook his head, then threw it back to get his crimson mane out of his eyes.

"Anyway, if'n you don't mind sitting in one room for awhile, you can grind the grain. I built the millstone to run with magic, but Clover....well, it'd be a lot more efficient with a talented--er, an older unicorn running it. Besides, she's got some errands to run, so that works out for us all."

Starswirl busied himself arranging the plates on the table. "Some ponies, on hearing their guest almost got them run out of town, would not be so hospitable to them from then on. Even among their own kind."

For a long time, Carmine tended to the pancakes. "They would've blamed us anyway," he said finally. "They always do. Wasn't your fault. You were trying to help. Even if'n they're three ponies that don't deserve it."

"Ponies who don't deserve kindness," Starswirl mused as he sat at the table, "are often the ones who need it the most."

Carmine made a noncommittal grunt as he magicked the pancakes off the stove and onto the plates. He sat himself down at the table as well.

"You still haven't asked me about Roan," Starswirl said offhandedly. "If I were an exile, and a traveler from my homeland turned up on my doorstep, I would be very keen on learning all I could. Perhaps even finding out if the cause of my exile is still in effect."

"I keep thinking I should," Carmine said softly, "then I realize I'm not sure I'll be so keen on the answer. Old wounds, all that."

"I know the feeling. Very well. But, if you're so hesitant to ask about Roan, I could casually let it slip...."

"Naw, I'll ask when I'm ready to know." Cheerfully, Carmine added, "So you sit there and accept my hospitality, you hear?"

Starswirl nodded. "Sounds most amenable to me."

The instant the front door closed, Clover said, "You promised! Last night, you said you'd tell me why ponies sometimes start singing like that, and you didn't."

Starswirl casually looked over her shoulder, out the front window, to make sure Carmine wasn't abruptly turning around and heading back to the mill.

"I said I would, and I will," Starswirl said.

Clover jumped for joy, an enormous smile lighting up her face.

Then Starswirl said, "But first...."

Clover slumped her shoulders. "There's always a cave-eat!"

"Cave-eat?"

"Papa says it about the merchants."

"Oh, a caveat. Yes, there's usually one of those, I'm afraid, but that's the price you pay."

Pulling his beat-up straw hat onto his head, Starswirl ambled through the door on the far wall and into the mill itself. As Carmine had explained, the millstone mechanism was indeed designed to turn by the ethereal power of a unicorn's magic, but Carmine had rigged a crude treadmill up to its inner workings for Clover's benefit.

"Hmm," he said to himself. "I believe a Come-To-Life spell should do."

With that, he narrowed his eyes and sent magic surging up into his horn, then reached out and surrounded the millstone with it. With a jerk and a rattle, it and its gears and mechanisms roared to life under their own power, and started crushing the pulped grain even further.

"Wow," Clover whispered. "Not even papa can do that!"

"Let this be our little secret, alright?" Starswirl said with a wink. "Now, about these errands of yours...."