//------------------------------//
// CHAPTER VIII: The Cider Horse Rules 
// Story: Special Illumination 
// by ponichaeism 
//------------------------------//

	Over the town tavern's facade hung a wooden sign with a carven picture of a draft horse, and below that were words that read:


The Cider Horse
Jack Apple & Brandy Apple, Proprietors


Starswirl merrily trotted up to the front door, through which he could hear boisterous yells and sloppy singing. As he approached, it swung open and a stallion got forcibly ejected. He landed face-first on the grass.
"And dontcha dare come back, Diamond Joe," bellowed a strapping mare standing in the doorway, "till you learn how to talk to a lady!" Then she turned and ambled back inside.
Diamond Joe tried to lift his head off the ground, but it wobbled and bobbled until it crashed back down.
"Can I help you, friend?" Starswirl asked.
The stallion on the ground muttered incoherently, then eased himself down and started snoring.
"Sorry to hear that," Starswirl said, magicking a sheet covering a crate near the tavern's wall up into the air, then draping it over the sleeping pony. Then, Starswirl trotted up to the tavern door and went inside.
Orrin Tin's soused voice carried above the raucous noise. "And why, just why was that huckster in town the night my house burned, huh? Now, he says he was a houseguest of--"
One pony at a table near the entrance glanced over at Starswirl walking in, which caused him to spit a mouthful of cider all over his table. Everypony else stopped talking and turned to stare at the beaming unicorn trotting up to the bar.
Starswirl didn't need a connection to the Harmony to feel how unwelcome he was.
"Well now," Orrin Tin drawled, "what're you doing here? I bet that huckster, Lockhorn, put you up to burning my house down, didn't he? Didn't he?"
"Orrin," the tawny barmaid said.
He ignored her. "Why, I bet he put you up to all the happenings going on around here, you and that miller. In fact, I bet it was him who caused the collapse in my mine, so's Lockhorn could get everypony turned against me with his poor little crippled colt--!"
"Orrin!" the barmaid shouted. 
"Well, I ain't going to let you destroy everything I worked for, all my sweat and tears--!"
"ORRIN TIN!" the barmaid bellowed. "You're one a'my finest customers, but this is my tavern, and I make the rules! Rule number one is: I say who's welcome here and who ain't, and if'n ya don't cease this, I'll throw you outta here just like I did Diamond Joe, you hear?"
Red-faced, Orrin grumbled to himself, then nodded curtly.
"Everypony else got that?!" she hollered. 
Half of the patrons muttered and grumbled that they did; the other half said nothing and stewed in sour-faced silence.
Turning on the charm, the barmaid smiled at Starswirl and asked pleasantly, "Now, stranger, what can I get you?"
"Oh, ahem," Starswirl said sheepishly. "Cider?"
"First one's on the house," she said, then added stiffly, "on account a'someponies can't mind their manners."
Orrin grabbed his tankard and moved off to sit at a table with several brawny ponies who had pickaxes and gemstones for cutie marks. The other ponies sitting at the bar found their own excuses to walk away, until the only one in earshot was the barmaid.
"My most sincere thanks, madam," Starswirl said.
She turned to a barrel along the wall, put a tankard under the nozzle, and twisted it with her mouth. As the tankard filled, she said, "Name's Brandy Apple. My husband and I own this here establishment."
"Ah, this is the first warm welcome I've had yet."
"What about the miller? I heard you're lodging with him."
"Yes, but there was an....incident, and he wasn't very happy to see me at first."
She placed the tankard in front of him. He magicked one of the coins he'd gotten from Carmine out of his saddlebag and levitated it onto the countertop.
"I told you it's on the house," she said, cocking her head.
"It's not for me," Starswirl said, grinning. "It's for Mister Tin."
"The same Mister Tin that just ranted and raved about you setting fire to his house?"
"The very same."
"You're a weird one, Mister." Brandy lifted the coin with her teeth and put it under the counter, then gave Starswirl a sharp look before pouring another tankard.
"Orrin Tin is upset about his house," Starswirl said softly. "Often, it's more gratifying to see the hoof of an enemy at work in our misfortune. An enemy can be fought against, and offers us the chance for gratification, the reassurance we hold the 'right' belief. Unfortunately, that same mindset leads ponies to see the hoof of a friend as the hoof of a concealed enemy, as well." 
She whistled. "For sure you're one a'them city ponies, full a'ideas and notions."
"We are all full of ideas and notions, Missus Apple. The problem is discovering how to gather them together, learn which ones are the most worthy ones, and spread those to every corner of the world."
"You just call me Brandy, you hear?" she said as she took the tankard and balanced it on her back. "Hearing 'Missus Apple' just makes me sound old."
As she walked over to give Orrin his drink, Starswirl drank his cider and thought back on what he'd said to Clover: 'You'll grow old, but as days go by you'll find yourself wishing more and more for the simpleness of youth.'
"What?!" Orrin shouted. "I bet he enchanted it to make me ill."
"Orrin," Brandy said, "he didn't lay a hoof--"
"I don't care. You take this back and throw it in his face!"
Brandy trotted back behind the counter. "Seems you were right."
Starswirl put on a brave face. "Not what I hoped for but, sadly, exactly what I expected."
"Let me give you a bit a'honest advice," Brandy said. "Not all ponies in this town hate unicorns, exactly."
"You're living proof of that," Starswirl said, gulping down some cider.
"That's not what I mean. See, Lockhorn Plenty and Orrin Tin are the two biggest employers in town, and neither of 'em much relishes the other's competition."
"Competition between a mine and a farm?"
"Goes deeper than that. Deep down, both a'them think their business should be the only business in town, and the other one's just sucking up resources."
Of course, Starswirl thought, I'd wager that that's nothing but an excuse to hate each other over Beryl.
"So why did Lockhorn's son work for Orrin in the mines?" he asked.
"They had a big old falling out, Lockhorn and Junior. Lockhorn put on a brave face, but he was in here till the wee hours of the morning, bawling about how he was a terrible father. Slip a pony a few mugs of sympathy cider, even the hardest stone will crack. Junior Plenty went to work at the mines out a'spite, and Orrin was happy to have him for the same reason. After the shaft went and collapsed, Lockhorn and Junior made up, but it was too late. He won't ever walk again, and now he spends his days bedridden at Lockhorn's farmhouse. Lockhorn, naturally, blames Orrin for his son's condition, and its done split the town in half. Anypony who works for one a'them but ain't firmly on their boss's side, well, they find themselves out of a job real quick. So's the townsponies are already chomping at the bit to please their bosses, and on top a'that, they're terrified a'being replaced. Can't say I don't understand. You can do things they can't."
"Oh, nonsense!" Starswirl said. "I'm sure anypony can learn to play the violin if they're willing to practice. Well, and have a sizable income and access to a craftspony, that is."
Brandy Apple frowned at him.
"Sorry," Starswirl said unapologetically.
"I meant your magic, oats for brains. A unicorn would put a lot a'hardworking earth ponies out a'business. They're looking at the end of their livelihood, so's they got a real good reason for not letting you or the miller get too comfortable. You wouldn't be the first unicorns they've run out a'town."
Starswirl, in the middle of chugging his cider, stopped drinking and slowly put the tankard down. "Hmm? What do you mean?"
"Ah, so's you're keen when you want to be, huh? Long time back, a young mare in town got pregnant. She weren't married, so's the townfolk were already none too pleased. But then, when the foal was born...."
Brandy leaned across the counter, and Starswirl mirrored her.
"....they say it had a horn on its head," she said softly.
"When was this?"
"Oooh, 'bout twenty years back."
"And the mother was an earth pony?"
"A'course. She was an earth pony, sure as sugar. But the townfolk never found out who the father was. She wouldn't say. She ain't never set a hoof outside a'town, and nopony remembered a unicorn stopping by."
"What became of this mare and her foal?"
"They ran 'em both out a'town. They said it was because the foal was born out a'wedlock, but if that's the truth I'm made of apple jam. I never did find out what became a'them."
"And when did Carmine arrive in town?"
"A lot sooner than twenty years ago. Maybe seven years back, I reckon."
Carmine would've been a teenager twenty years ago, Starswirl thought, staring at the wall and sipping his cider. Clover is eleven, and if they truly left Roan when she was but an infant, then it took him five years to ramble on over here. If he knew this place from earlier in his life, he surely chose to take the most scenic route when coming back.
Hmm....I wonder....
Rumor says that when the rebels established the Commune of Roan, they chopped off the horn of the mad king and sent him into exile. 
Even if a unicorn has his horn removed, it's still in his blood. He could pass it on to a foal, for sure.
"You alright, stranger?" Brandy asked. "You ain't said a word for nearly a minute, and I'm getting worried."
"Oh, yes, I'm just thinking."
"You should do it more often," she said with a smirk.
Starswirl licked his lips. "Tell me, if you would be so kind, did any other ponies arrive in this town about twenty, twenty-five years ago?"
"Well, that's around when Orrin Tin settled here and started up the mines. So's after that, earth ponies from all over County Cornhaul started moving here looking for work, both in the mines, and on the farms making more food to feed all the new arrivals."
"I see...." Starswirl trailed off into silence, thinking heavily and finishing off his cider. He dropped his empty tankard on the counter. "Well, I should be going."
"You've still got one more left." She nodded at the cider Orrin Tin had refused.
"Give it to somepony else," Starswirl replied. "Generosity is a virtue, after all."
With that, he turned and walked out of the tavern. Everypony's heavy stares followed him as he stepped out, and emerged into the cool, refreshing night air. His head buzzed slightly, but he could still think clearly. The full moon was rising in the sky, and he needed all his wits about him if he were to venture into the forest in the dead of night.