//------------------------------//
// CHAPTER II: Carmine and Clover 
// Story: Special Illumination 
// by ponichaeism 
//------------------------------//

	The mill was situated at the very edge of the dense, overgrown forest. There was no stream nearby, nor did any wind sails stick up from the two-story round stone building, but the unicorn already had an idea about how the flour was ground. He peered into a window and saw an empty living room with a fire burning in the hearth. Sure enough, he saw the firelight glint off a familiar compass lying on the dinner table. 
It was a compass he knew very well, in fact. Mareco Polo had given it to him after their expedition to Cath-Hay. It saved their lives when--
Now isn't the best time to reminisce, he thought sadly. Especially about....her.
The unicorn brushed aside the memories and summoned his wits about him, then strode to the door, shouldered it open, and walked right in. The first thing he noticed was a heavy grinding from beyond the far wall. Rather than open the door, he went to the hearth, where water simmered in a cauldron. He lifted the ladle with his magic, dipped it into the soup, and sipped it.
He frowned at the lackluster, watery taste. It was barely soup. 
Just as he put the ladle down, the front door creaked open. A sack surrounded by a red aura entered, followed by a gray unicorn with dark red hair.
"Clover?" he called. 
The loud grinding drowned out his voice. He sucked in a breath to call louder when he saw the stranger in his living room. In shock, he forgot to keep the sack airborne, and it thudded to the ground. An onion rolled onto the floorboards.
After a second to compose himself, he shouted, "Who the blazes are you?!"
The unicorn smiled. "Why, hello. My name is Starswirl."
"And what're you doing in my house?!"
Starswirl faked mild confusion. "Why, I was invited."
"In-invited?!" the other unicorn sputtered.
"At least I think I was," Starswirl said. "You see, when I arrived, I found all the ponies so reticent and untalkative I naturally assumed they preferred to communicate by gesture. So when I saw your foal take my saddlebag, I merely assumed that that was an invitation for a weary traveler such as myself to follow. I really must apologize if I've misunderstood your customs. As you can probably tell, I'm new in this village."
Starswirl kept his pleasant smile up.
The stallion simmered in anger for a moment, then yelled over the grinding noise, "Clover!"
The grinding stopped. After a moment, the door opened and a glum-looking filly with bright red hair and a pale green coat walked into the room. 
"I wasn't expecting you so soon, pa-" she began, but as soon as she laid eyes on Starswirl, she yelped like she was being strangled.
"Have you been stealing things from the market again?" the stallion asked, snarling.
Her eyes went to the floorboards. "I...."
The stallion crossed the room and shook her roughly. "Have you?"
Starswirl stepped forward. "I'm sure it was nothing but a harmless misunder-"
"Quiet," the stallion said. He turned back to his foal. "Answer me!"
The little filly, eyes shining with tears, looked up and shouted, "They deserve it! They're always so terrible to us, papa."
"And if'n they find out the market thief is from the only unicorn family in town, how'll that make them feel about us?"
The filly sniffled and looked at the floor again.
"I told you," the stallion said, "when I'm gone, you stay in the house and you grind the flour. Now you get the things you stole and bring them out here. Then you get back in there and you grind."
The filly trudged up a spiral staircase and came back down thirty seconds later, dragging Starswirl's saddlebag by her teeth. She brought it to his hooves and put it down. 
Still staring intently at the floor, she mumbled, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were one of....us."
"Whyever would you think I was not a pony?"
"No, sir. I mean a unicorn."
"That, my dear, is a very dangerous attitude to take."
She looked up at him with her emerald eyes, jaw hanging open as she tried to understand what he meant. But her father stomped on the ground, hard, and summoned her back to reality. She jumped a foot, then trotted into the back room. 
"I'm mighty sorry about that, I am," said the stallion. 
"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Starswirl said as he checked the contents of his saddlebag. "No harm done. Well, I should be off." He started for the door.
"It's almost sundown," said the stallion, "so's I suppose you'll need a place to spend the night."
Starswirl turned around and saw a flinty look in the stallion's eyes that told Starswirl he was, for the most part, asking to make up for his daughter's thievery. But Starswirl thought he saw something else, as well. They were both unicorns, after all, far from home and in a strange land. Perhaps unicorns really did stick together, thick as....
Well, 'thieves' wouldn't be the best comparison, Starswirl had to admit.
"I would very much like to spend the night," he mused, "but alas, I'm afraid it cannot be bought and sold so easily...."
The stallion just stared at him.
"That would be most agreeable," Starswirl said. "Truth be told, my journey has been more wearying than I expected. If it's amenable to you, I would very much like a few days' to recuperate. I would, of course, be willing to work in exchange for your hospitality."
Cautiously, the unicorn said, "I think we can come to an arrangement." He held out a hoof. "Carmine."
Starswirl shook it. "Pleased to meet you."
"Oh, and if'n Clover gives you any more trouble, you just let me know." 
"I sincerely doubt that will be necessary."
"Heh, if'n you say so. She's a handful, I tell you."
Walking past Starswirl, Carmine approached the hearth, lowered his horn, and shot a burst of flame to make the fire hotter. Then he walked over to the kitchen, using his magic to carry the sack with him. He lifted several onions out and started chopping them with a knife.
"Have a seat," he said.
"Oh, thank you," Starswirl said, sitting on a pillow near the hearth.
"So where you from, stranger?"
"The Most Beneficent Republic of Varnice."
Carmine whistled. "Long way from home."
"You can talk. How does a unicorn such as yourself come to live out here in the middle of earth pony territory?"
"Born and bred in Roan," Carmine said wistfully.
"Judging by your accent, you haven't been there for a long time."
"That's true. I picked up the local talk to fit in, and I guess it became part of me after a while. When the Commune collapsed, let's just say I needed to get away for a while. So's I walked out of the city gates, my infant foal in tow, and kept walking until I ended up here. They needed a miller, I had experience, so's I built this mill with my own horn. Been here ever since."
"Just the two of you?"
"Just us."
"And you're the only unicorns in town?"
Carmine stopped chopping. After ten seconds of silence, he admitted, "Depends."
"On what?"
"What you mean by 'town'."
"Why are the ponies of Hollowed Ground so terrified of unicorns?"
Carmine sighed. "When I first arrived, they weren't too thrilled. Nasty looks, muttered whispers, normal small-town stuff. But never nothing bad. Not like now. If'n they didn't need a miller, they'd run me out of town by now."
"What changed?"
"It started last year. Crops failed, pets disappeared, machines got wrecked, mine disasters, things like that."
"What do the townponies say is the cause?"
"Ha! Half of 'em say there's a unicorn living in the forest, using his dark magic on them."
Starswirl leaned forward. "And what do you think?"
"I think this town is going crazy trying to explain a bunch of nonsense. I tell them the pets started going missing about the same time timberwolves showed up, but they don't listen. I point out plenty of machines besides the mill haven't been touched. They still don't listen." 
"Curious," Starswirl mumbled to himself.
"What's that?"
"Oh, nothing. Nothing. Forgive me, I'm just an old pony talking to himself."
"You don't look that old."
"I feel that old."
"Being far from home will do that." Carmine finished slicing the onions and magicked them into the cauldron. "Don't have much in the way of stew. Folks 'round here seem to think I put a hex on my flour, so they shouldn't hafta pay full price for it. As if getting it cheap will make it any less cursed. That's Hollowed Ground for you."
"Yes," Starswirl said, rubbing his chin with his hoof, "I'm starting to get the picture."


"So, Clover," Starswirl asked, "how adept are you?"
The little filly, who hadn't said a word all throughout dinner, stopped poking her vegetables with her hoof and looked up and said, "I can do sums all the way up to a hundred."
Starswirl chuckled. "It has nothing to do with adding. It means how powerful your magic is."
Clover's eyes flicked to her father, then back to her plate. "I'm not very powerful."
"It's for the best," Carmine said. "These folks are a superstitious lot. No need to give them any more reason to mistrust us."
"Yes, papa."
Suddenly, the house creaked as a stiff breeze whipped into it. Outside, something clattered to the ground.
Carmine groaned. "I won't be a minute."
After he'd gone outside, lantern in mouth, Starswirl peered curiously at Clover.
"So, Clover," Starswirl said again, "how adept are you? The truth, this time."
"I told you," she said, shifting uncomfortably, "I can't do much."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
She glanced over her shoulder to the front door, then leaned closer and whispered, "Sometimes, though, I imagine I'm really powerful, and I make the other foals scared of how powerful I am."
"Power, Clover, is nothing more than that. It must be tempered with wisdom, or else it's less than nothing."
"What kind of wisdom?" she whispered, awed.
"The kind that you only learn over a lifetime of living."
"But you learned it?"
Starswirl nodded. "Back home, when a student shows how adept he or she has become, they are given the title of 'stregone'."
"And you're a stra-what's-it?"
"Yes. My full title is Stregone Starswirl."
"If you're such a great unicorn, why did you leave?"
Just then, the front door creaked open, and Starswirl shushed her.
"....and then they demanded to know if I was a king! And I replied 'I'm more important than a king.' They scoffed and shouted, 'Nopony's more important than a king.' To which I replied, 'Aha! For you see, I am nopony!' Unfortunately, they did not allow me to stay at the banquet, but I was able to take home some fine cutlery. After they flung it at my retreating backside, of course."
Clover giggled as her father sat down and resumed his dinner. From then on, Starswirl noticed a change in the little filly. She kept sneaking glances up at him, like a secret line of communication had been opened between them. 
Perhaps one had.