The dark forest loomed around Starswirl, whose dim illumination spell could barely penetrate ten feet into the foliage. Even the full moon in all her glory struggled to pierce the canopy. He'd elected to avoid the alleged "path" that had brought him near the Foalright Stones earlier in the day, in case he met anyone already on their way there, which unfortunately meant he now had to go through the densest part of the forest instead, relying on his compass to keep him oriented eastward.
He pressed himself through a particularly thick thicket of shrubs, only for his beard to become ensnared on a bramble. He tried to untangle it without making too much noise, but after a half-minute of struggling, he accepted that he had to get himself free the painful way. He gingerly held the thorny vine down with his hoof, gritted his teeth, and pulled. A clump of dark blue hair tore loose and stayed stuck to the brambles. He rubbed his stinging chin.
A branch cracked behind him.
As he spun to face the noise, he dimmed his illumination spell even further. Heart pounding, his eyes darted around the pitch-black forest, but the only thing he glimpsed moving was a branch bending in the wind.
That must've been it. The wind. Just the wind. Calm yourself, Starswirl.
He tried to reach out with the Harmony, but all he could feel was the forest throbbing with life. If something unnaturally malign did indeed lurk out there, it was hidden well. And unfortunately for him, timberwolves and other predators were not unnaturally malign. He was confident that, if it came down to it, his magic could hold its own against a timberwolf, but not only did he have no particular desire to test that, it'd also be a dead giveaway to the ponies whom he was trying to conceal his presence from.
He magically set the clump of hair caught on the brambles on fire so nopony or predator could track him by it, then stamped the flames out. After making sure the brambles themselves hadn't caught fire as well, he moved on.
Very, very cautiously.
He heard their voices carrying on the wind long before he saw anything. As Starswirl moved towards the source, he concentrated hard on the chanted syllables, straining his faculties to work out what the ponies were saying. He slowed to half his already-stunted pace and wormed his way through the low-hanging branches and tangled shrubs until the soft glow of a distant fire revealed itself and flickered against the tree bark. He extinguished the light from his horn.
The closer he got, the more he could sense the Harmony emanating from the stone circle. It was much the same as it had been earlier during the day, although more intense, as this energy was fresh. Ponies, united in their will, reflected and directed energy from the sparks of Harmony in their hearts towards the forest, which eagerly soaked it up.
But alas, the energy was poison. Starswirl felt an undercurrent of fear laced in with the hope, souring it and infecting the woods, although the woods were large enough that it could dilute the fear until the fear lost its potency. Still, he sensed eddies of discord building up in the vast weave of the forest's magic.
He slipped himself into the Harmony and worked his way through the connection he and the ponies ahead shared, to discern what it was these ponies were so scared of.
Change, was what he got back.
They were fraught with fear everything they knew would disappear, and that by extension the forest would die. And it was the outsiders who would take it away, by taking away worship of the forest.
Finally, he came close enough to see the ritual in all its glory. As he crouched in the darkness, he parted two branches and observed.
A ring of torches had been planted around the Foalright Stones. The flames threw the cloaked ponies holding hooves and encircling the center into sharp relief. One whose voice Starswirl didn't recognize spoke up.
"....we call you forth, O father of the forest! Our bounty is yours to bestow, and it is by your hoof alone that our hooves do move to carry out your will, which is ours also, for we and it are one."
How ironic, thought Starswirl, that so many insular cultures like this one hate and fear the outside world, and yet when you compare their rituals with other cultures, you find more similarities than differences.
The connection that binds us together at work.
The robed leader called, "Come forth, O father of all!"
"We beseech you!" the other ponies chorused.
Then they all reared back and raised their hooves to the sky, allowing Starswirl to spot a ram's skull with enormous curled horns lying on the ground between them, right where the dirt was displaced, almost as if something regularly burst out of the ground....
That's unusual, he thought, frowning.
The ponies all spun in a circle in the flickering light, which threw their shadows onto the surrounding trees and made them dance like shadow puppets. When they finished revolving, they stomped down hard on the earth.
"Come forth, O father of all!"
"We beseech you!"
They twirled in unison a second time, then stomped on the ground twice. The leader repeated his cry, the crowd answered, and then they whirled in place a third time and stomped thrice.
"Come forth!" they all cried as one, raising their hooves to the sky.
And then, to Starswirl's astonished eyes, the ram's skull burst out of the forest floor. Dirt lifted it upwards and coalesced into the body of a stallion who rose from the ground itself, arms spread. The circle of ponies got down on their forelegs and bowed to the spectral, earthen figure.
Starswirl's thoughts raced as he tried to work out what sort of magic could do this and, also, how earth ponies could harness it. It was true that all earth ponies have a magical connection to the land that allows them to commune with nature, but to do actual magic of this sort? Were there earth ponies with this kind of power?
Unless....it actually was a forest spirit.
Starswirl reached out with the Harmony, but all that he felt from the earthen figure was a reflection of the ponies surrounding it, giving it their worship.
"We thank you, father of all!" they cried.
And then, Starswirl heard the rustle of shrubs behind him. He looked back and saw Clover pop out of a bush, stumble a bit, and then right herself.
Starswirl growled, "Clover, what in the name of the Harmony are you doing here?!"
"I-I thought you were leaving, s-so I--"
She looked past him, at the congregation standing within the Foalright Stones, and a loud gasp escaped her. He spun round just in time to see the ram-headed spirit slowly turn its skull to look upon them. Starswirl stared right into its hollow eye sockets, and everything went quiet as if the universe itself was holding its breath.
Then the moment broke, and the earthen spirit jabbed a hoof at their hiding place.
"Clover, run!" Starswirl whispered.
But the filly just stared numbly at the spirit.
"Get them!" the congregation's leader shouted.
Starswirl grabbed Clover, swung her onto his back, and galloped away from the Foalright Stones as the sound of hooves beating against the dirt filled the forest. He ducked and weaved through the branches and shrubs, the compass thumping against his chest and Clover's forelegs squeezing his throat as she held on for dear life. He pushed every thought out of his mind, and focused on running.
Eventually, the cries from the pursuers and the light from the torches they hoisted started getting weaker and weaker, until they were gone entirely. Panting for breath, Starswirl eased up on the galloping.
When he could speak, he said softly yet sharply, "Whatever was going through your mind when you decided to go out into the forest at night?"
"I-I-I knew you'd protect me."
"That is no excuse! Why did you think it would be a good idea to follow me in the first place?"
"You were leaving," she said, her voice cracking. "I wanted to get you to stay."
He sighed. "Clover, honesty is something I value very much. I told you I was not leaving, and I truly meant it."
"Then why were you going into the forest?"
"I needed to know what was happening out at Foalright Stones. I'm a grown unicorn, I could handle it."
"It's not my fault my stupid horn doesn't work--!"
"That's not what I mean. You're young and foolish. You do not know what you're doing."
"I do too!" she shouted.
"Keep quiet, unless you want them to find us?"
"No, but--"
The wind picked up and sent ripples of motion through the foliage, like the trees were shivering with cold. Starswirl's hair stood on end, and a tingle coursed through his body. He slowed down and cocked his head to one side.
"What is it?" asked Clover. "Is it--"
"Quiet!"
Something wasn't right, he knew. Something was coming for them, a thing twisted and unbalanced. A corruption of the Harmony, a concentrated whorl of malign power festering within the web of the universal connection.
Was it that earth spirit he had seen? Or whatever else it could possibly be?
He wasn't keen on finding out right now, not with Clover present. Picking up his pace again, he magicked his compass up, opened the lid, and lit his horn slightly to read which direction was west.
"Starswirl?" Clover whimpered. "Can we hurry?"
He looked over his shoulder, onto his back, then followed her eyes as she stared at the forest behind them, where a dark shadow streaming among the trees. It was not the natural darkness generated by the Harmony, but rather one of those analogies he had told Clover about. This darkness was a pure lack of the ethereal radiance of the Harmony.
And it was headed straight for them.
As he galloped hard through the underbrush, Starswirl felt the presence hunting them like a raptor gliding through the sky with its eye on a field mouse, readying itself to dive. Glancing back, he saw it gaining on them effortlessly among the trees. It burst with the magic of the forest. The natural Harmony of this ancient place was lending it raw power that it twisted and distorted for its malign purpose.
Starswirl knew what he had to do. He just hoped he had the strength for it.
Shucking Clover off his back, Starswirl careened to a halt and turned to face the shadow.
"Run, Clover!" he shouted.
"But--!"
"I said run!"
She lingered for a moment, then he heard the sound of her hooves beating against the forest floor.
"We meet at last," said Starswirl.
He dug his hooves into the dirt as the shadow raced to meet him. It had the vague shape of a pony, yet its ethereal form flickered and burned like fire, indistinct and unfocused. Beholding the shadow's energy felt, to Starswirl's eyes, like they were flashing between two different images at the same time: one galloping full out, one not moving at all. Everything about it was a violation of nature. The wizard let the magic from the spark of Harmony within him flow into his horn, which started glowing with cerulean light. He readied himself for the complex magic he was about to perform.
"Come at me, then!" he roared, galloping back to meet it.
The shadow-figure glided right at him, its form stretching to the sky as if it were opening a set of jaws.
Right before they collided, Starswirl siphoned up the fabric of the universe around him, concentrating it and stripping away the layers of matter the Harmony was forced to manifest through, channeling that pure energy through himself, and aiming it at the shadow. The pinpoint beam of pure Harmony energy blasted right at its shadow-burning aura; it reared away from the impact with a roar.
Sensing his chance, Starswirl delved into the universal connection and worked his through the infinite web towards where the shadow lurked in it. He knew as soon as he dived into its mind that this stallion's power was nascent, still growing in strength and focus. It could be a pony whose raw magic was overwhelming their material form, but he wasn't sure. He rushed to pluck something, anything of use from its dark mind while it was distracted. He could see the shape of its innermost thoughts, but could not unlock them. That took time, and he only had a scant few seconds before it withdrew entirely.
Ah!
At the center of this shadow-stallion's being pulsed a burning core of pure hatred and spite. But of what?
Outsiders?
No, more specific.
The shadow stallion tried to force him out, but Starswirl struggled against it and kept it rooted in place momentarily. He willed himself to crack its center and discover what was driving it into the darkness.
Almost....got it!
For a single moment, he touched the primal thought at the center of its being:
'You thought you could seal my power away, Carmine? Well, you were mistaken!'
And with that, Starswirl's control over the shadow stallion broke. Seizing its opportunity, it turned and fled into the forest until there was nothing but the distant breaking of branches, and then silence once again. The shadow had vanished into the deep, dark night already overfilled with shadows, and Starswirl was alone once more.
So, he thought, vindicated, this mysterious stallion know Carmine, does it?