Flare of Love

Rainbow Dash’s house, 9:38 A.M., March 21st, 2012

Midnight sat up in Rainbow Dash’s bed. He had fallen asleep soon after they arrived at her house. He felt a lot better than he had a few hours ago, Nightmare having retreated inside him again. He was fully in control of his body now. Looking around, he didn’t see Rainbow Dash, but he heard somepony in the kitchen. He propped himself up and the bed creaked in response. Rainbow Dash must have heard him because she came into the room a few moments later.

“I see you’re awake. You ready to go talk to Twilight?”

“Of course. I’m ready to finally get rid of the one pony who has caused all of our problems for the past 6 years. Let’s go.”

Rainbow Dash looked down for a minute, lost in thought.

“Rainbow Dash? You okay?”

She shook her head. “Yeah, I’m fine. Come on, let’s go talk to Twilight.”

Midnight sprung up from the bed, ready to go. For all the pain Nightmare could inflict on him, there seemed to be no lasting effects, except his exhaustion when he resisted her. He could move just fine now that he had had some rest.

“Well, you look a lot better than before we got here.”

“Yeah, I’m just eager to get this over with.” The two walked out the front door, and began to make their way to Ponyville.

It wasn’t a very long flight to Twilight’s home, but Rainbow Dash seemed particularly quiet on the way. Midnight thought about how much trouble she had been put through because of Nightmare... because of him. This had to end, and soon. Hopefully they could find a way. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked over to see Rainbow Dash, eyes in his direction. She looked frustrated, but he shot her a reassuring smile, and she seemed to accept it, returning the gesture.

They landed in front of Twilight’s library, and trotted up to the front step. Midnight stepped up and rapped on the door and a few moments later it was answered by someone he hadn’t met before, small purple and green dragon, who proceeded to introduce himself.

“Welcome to the Ponyville Library, I don’t think I recognize you, my name is Spike. I’m the-” he stopped when he saw Rainbow Dash standing outside.

“Hey Spike, this is Midnight, we’re here to see Twilight. It’s important.”

“Oh, I see.” He suddenly looked serious. “You better come inside then.”

He led them into the library, Midnight saw his sister pop out from behind a pile of books, all of which she was probably in the middle of, from what he’d seen of her, she was quite the reader. Rainbow Dash announced their presence.

“Twilight?”

“Oh, Hi Rainbow Dash. Hi Midnight. What brings you two here?”

Midnight had stepped forward. “We need to talk to the princesses as soon as possible. It’s urgent.”

“Alright.” She hopped out of her pile of books. “Spike, take a letter to the princess please.”

“Aye aye. Spike had grabbed a scroll and quill, and readied himself to write down Twilight’s letter.

“Alright, what’s the problem?”

“Well, as you might know, Nightmare is still inside of Midnight. We had an incident with Nightmare this morning, and we’re looking to talk to the princesses. We’re going to need their help to get Nightmare out of Midnight once and for all.”

“I can work with that. You ready Spike?”

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am writing to you on urgent matters. My brother Midnight has returned after he had left town without explaination 1 year ago. You may remember him as the pony you and Luna had revived in Ponyville 1 year ago. He has informed me that Nightmare Moon is still inside of him. He has requested your presence to find a way to remove Nightmare Moon once and for all. Please respond as soon as possible.

Your faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle

“Got it.” Spike rolled up the scroll and sent it on its way with a burst of green flame.

“How long does this usually take?”

“Usually only a few seconds, depending on how much the princess is writing.” Right after Twilight had finished speaking, a green flame shot out of Spike’s mouth and turned into a letter.

Spike grabbed the letter out of the air and began to read aloud:

Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student,

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but we are currently undergoing important negotiation with the Griffin Community. As of now, we have no way of leaving Canterlot without finishing negotiations. We will work on finding a way to help Midnight as soon as we possibly can.

Princess Celestia

“Well she said they would help as soon as possible, how long could that be?”

“Who knows? In all of the years that I’ve worked with Princess Celestia, I’ve never seen her needing to deal with such serious issues like this.”

“Not to mention the inconvenient timing.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t think she’d be so busy.”

“Well, thanks anyway Twilight.” The two ponies walked out of the front door of library. “So Midnight, can we talk about something?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“It’s about Zero.”

“You’re still on that? I thought that we got over that last night.”

“We did, but I’m still curious. You were gone for a whole year, what did you two do all that time in New Fillhi?”

“Well, we spent most of our time training in the Haymalayan Mountains. I spent most of that year learning to control my fire.”

“Okay, but what did you do when you weren’t training?”

“Slept. We trained all day, we didn’t have time for anything else.”

“Really, I’d think you’d want to take a break once in a while.”

“Rainbow Dash, have I ever told you why I had no place to stay when we started flight school?”

“No, but you said you were from Canterlot, I never really thought about it. We were just kids.”

“I ran away. I left my family because I couldn’t control my power. I was putting them in danger, and I couldn’t do that any longer.”

“Midnight, I...” he cut her off.

“I was selected for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. The same school that Twilight was selected for. When I went in for the entrance exam, I... I ended up losing control of my power and... I killed the instructors.”

“I had no idea, Midnight.”

“I know, I haven’t told anyone, it’s not something I like to talk about, but I thought you should know. While I was gone, I trained my power every day, I had to gain control over it. We got up every day with the sun and ran exercises and fire training routines. It was all I could do to protect the ones I love. Zero helped me along the way. I don’t think I could have come as far as I did without her help.”

“I understand Midnight.” “I’m sorry I ever thought you were dishonest with me, I just never knew before.”

“Rainbow Dash, you don’t need to apologize for anything. You were completely justified, I should have told you what happened when I first got back, I just didn’t know what to say.”

“Well... I’m glad we talked about this anyway.”

“So am I, now we’re just waiting on the Princesses. We should find something to do while we’re stuck here.”