Child of the Night

I was at the breakfast table with Celestia, a pink alicorn, the captain of the royal guard, Silver, Twilight, and Blueblood. We were having a simple breakfast of hash browns, eggs, and orange juice. I ate with my eyes closed as I had always done, for I didn’t want to see anyone else as I ate.

“Osiris, can I ask you to do something?” Celestia asks me. I gently put my fork down, and open my purple eyes.

“You may ask, but I will see about the answer.” I reply as I look to her.

“Will you go to Ponyville with my student today to oversee the preparations for the festival?” She asks me. I bring a hand to my chin, and think about the chances of finding my mother there when she returns. They were pretty high.

“Yes, but I will not be needing any guards, for I can protect myself.” I tell her as I return to eating. I then hear a gasp from a male unicorn that I already hated, and you can probably guess who I’m talking about.

“How dare you talk to aunty like that you commoner filth?” Blueblood says as he glares at me. I sigh as I put my fork down again, and turn my gaze to him. I was completely calm.

“Talk to me again in a high and mighty voice and you will be a princess when I’m through with you.” I say in a flat voice, “And show me some respect for I am Celestia’s true nephew you low orphan of a whelp.” That got him to shut up, and got the captain of the guard to laugh.

“Celestia, you should have let Twily release him sooner. I like him already.” The captain says. I smirk at that. I then turn to Twilight.

“Apprentice Twilight, we will be ready to leave when thou are.” I tell her. She nods to me with an ‘okay Prince.’

I finish my breakfast, thank the chef, and leave the room, heading to the castle library to catch up on history, and try to ‘update’ my speech skills. It shouldn’t be hard as I am very adaptable, and I never really used the royal we very often unless talking to a non-royal, which was hardly ever, but if I am going to a settlement that wasn’t very far from mother’s castle, I might as well start learning.

I spent four hours in the library before Twilight came to get me so we could leave. Before you knew it we were on a royal chariot heading to the settlement a few miles away from Canterlot Mountain.

“Prince, may I ask you a few things?” Twilight asks me.

“Yes, and please just call me Osiris.” I tell her.

“Okay. How old are you?” She asks me. I smile as this was her best attempt at making a new friend.

“Counting the years in my stoned state, I am one thousand and thirteen years old, and on the winter moon celebration I will be one year older.” I tell her. She nods and writes something down on a notebook that she was levitating next to her.

“Can you use magic?” She asks me.

“Some, but the number of spells I can do increase along with my power, at night.” I tell her.

“So what can you do?” She asks with a studious curiosity. I chuckle.

“Well, now the spells I use are ancient, and old magics, and even back before my stoned state they were olden, and legends at most.” I tell her.

“Are you able to use every day spells?” She asks me. I flinch at the word day, but nod my head.

“Yes, I am able to use most silent magics, but most of my higher powered spells have a vocal piece to them.” I tell her.

“What do you mean?” She asks.

“Well, for one of my spells, which darkens my surroundings to simulate night, takes a few ancient words to activate. Would you like to see?” I ask her. She nods her head with a big smile.

I close my eyes, and summon my magic energy, but get a slight pain since it was light out.

“Noctem en tro.” I say as I open my eyes with a small flash in them. My black coloured magic jumps from my body onto the chariot, and out into the sky, darkening everything it touches. The chariot turned dark blue, and black storm clouds formed in the sky where my magic stopped travelling.

My spells burns away in the sunlight though, so it only lasted a few moments.

“Wow, can you teach me the spells you know?” She asks me. I narrow my eyes.

“No, the magic I use is for a lunar magic user only. If you tried to use this magic, it would severally injure, or kill you.” I tell her. She looks to the floor of the chariot with a saddened ‘oh.’

“But don’t worry; there are some silent spells I could teach once we’re back in Canterlot, as I doubt you have many combat spells.” I tell her with a small smile. This got her to smile again before the guards started descending into Ponyville.

Once the chariot came to a full stop I got out.

“Great job you two; I didn’t feel a single bump during the entire ride.” I praise the two guard stallions. They smile at my praise, and take off after Twilight, and her little dragon Spike got off.

“So, where are we going first?” I ask them.

“Banquet preparations, Sweet Apple Acers.” Spike reads aloud from a check list Celestia had given him. Twilight starts walking, and I stay by her side. I didn’t listen to the conversation Twilight, and Spike were having, but jumped a little as a pink earth mare gasps over dramatically, then basically disappears from view as she darts away.

“A noctesque.” I say as I bring my hand up to my fore head, and start to massage it lightly.

“Pr-… Osiris, what does that mean?” Twilight asks me.

“It means ‘by the night’ in an ancient tongue.” I tell her. She tilts her head, but leaves the conversation at that. I pull the hood on my cloak up and over my head, and sigh as the shade of the hood covers my eyes.

“Something wrong Pri- Osiris?” Twilight asks me.

“No, it is just that my eyes are used to the darkness of night, so they are very sensitive to daylight.” I tell her. She gives me a worried look.

“Would you like something to protect your eyes?” Twilight asks me. I shake my head.

“No, my hood is sufficient, and it keeps my eyes from hurting. I also don’t want to use anything too new for I am still adjusting to this era.” I reply.

“Okay, just tell me if you need something. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.” She tells me. I laugh at those words.

“Twilight, just the sun being up is making me uncomfortable. I was there when night time was eternal. I’m used to utter night time.” I tell her.

“How was it when the night didn’t end?” She asks me. I gave a big grin.

“For me it was great, for I could always do my most powerful spells, and I had greater strength, I could throw a boulder at a target three hundred meters away, and hit it every time. I was truly alive during my mother’s night. I lived then, and now I feel drained, I feel as though I could break at the first hit of my enemy. I feel dead.” I tell her.

“You keep saying mother, but you’ve never said her actual name.” Twilight points out.

“Her true name is Princess Luna, but after she made night endless she renamed herself as Nightmare Moon, so my mother is the mare in the moon.” I tell her. This got Twilight to look at me in fear, and I sigh with my head hung.

“I’m nothing like my mother Twilight, so don’t worry. I’m here to retrieve her when she returns.” I say as I slow my pace to a meandering speed.

“Prince, are you okay?” Twilight asks me as she notices my change in mood.

“I will be fine Twilight. I just remembered that I will never see my friends and teachers again.” I tell her as my eyes start to sting with tears. She walks up to me, and jumps up to hug me. I throw my arms around her, and let a tear fall. My eyes were closed, and I heard something I knew meant trouble.

I get a tighter grip on Twilight before I crouch, and jump into the air as a red stallion gallops under us. I land, and let Twilight go as I hit my medallion. My armour slides along my body, and my sword materializes in my right hand. The whole movement took three seconds.

“Earth stallion, stop your attack or I will be forced to subdue you.” I warn as the stallion recovers from his failed attempt. He shakes his head at me.

“Nnnope.” He yells as he charges again. I get into a stable stance, and hold my blade at the ready. Before the stallion got to me a rope goes around his neck, and he is pulled to a slower pace, but he was still moving at me. I stood up straight before I pointed my palm at him.

“Nocte crinem caterna.” I say in the ancient tongue. Black chains fly from my hands, and bind him to the ground. He growls as he pulls at the chains, but I start to close my hand, in turn making the chains tighten.

I could feel the sun draining my magic, so I lifted my right hand to the sky after I dropped my sword.

“Operimentum aream nox.” I say in the olden tongue. A large dome covers me, and the surrounding hundred feet in darkness that simulated the night. I smile as my power starts to return slowly, and I start to close my hand again.

“Stop!” Twilight yells. This broke me out of my warrior zone, and I see that I was starting to crush the stallion. I loosen my hand to a light grip that held the stallion in place, but allowed him to breathe easily.

I walk up to the stallion.

“I’m sorry for harming you, but will you please stop trying to harm me?” I ask him. He was breathing heavily, but nodded.

“Alright, I’m going to let you out of my spell, but I want your word that you will not jump to a conclusion, and harm me.” I tell him.

“Ya got it.” He tells me. I release both of my spells, and cringe at the sunlight. I press on the emblem on my armour, and it turns back into its medallion form. I help the stallion to his hooves, and he nods to me.

“Now, can you tell me why you rushed at me?” I ask him.

“Eeyup.” He tells me, and then points a hoof at Twilight. I understood him easily enough.

“Well, she was comforting me, and I was just accepting her hug. Are we on better terms now?” I ask him.

“Eeyup.” He tells me. I give a sigh of relief.

“Big Mac, what have I told you- whoa nelly, what in tarnation is that?” an orange earth mare asks as she gallops up to the red stallion’s side. I roll my eyes at her question before I notice that we were at Sweet Apple Acers.

“Oh good, Twilight, we’re here.” I say before I see that Twilight was looking at me in fear again. I walk up to her, and lay a hand on the back of her neck.

“Twilight, are you okay?” I ask her. She blinks a few times before she comes back to the land of the awake.

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting you to have armour, or training.” She tells me.

“Twilight, I’m a Prince from when war was still a high possibility. I started training when I was eight.” I told her.

“Yeah okay, just promise me you won’t hurt anypony too badly?” She asks with those cute eyes of hers.

“That is a promise I can make, but if the pony is out to harm me, I will have to break that promise in self-defence.” I tell her. She nods with a smile. I then turn to look at the earth mare that was now just staring at me with her mouth agape.

“Is she okay?” I ask the red stallion.

“Eeyup.” He tells me before he waves his big hoof in front of the mare’s face. This got her to jump.

“Who are you, and why were you in armour when I was holding my brother back from ya?” The orange earth mare asks me.

“I am here with this young unicorn to oversee the preparations for Celestia’s festival this year. I am Prince Osiris, and to answer your question about my armor it came from my necklace.” I tell her. She looks at me for a few moments before bowing to me. I groan at this.

“Get up earth mare, for you do not need to bow to me. I hate it when my subjects do so.” I tell her. She stood up with a light blush on her face. I look to Twilight, and motion her forward.

“Do your job Twilight, so I may search for my mother tonight. I still need to rest today as it is.” I tell her as she walks past me. She nods her head to me with a smile before she introduces herself to the earth mare, who I find out to be Apple Jack, the owner of Sweet Apple Acers.

As Twilight took an unwanted tangent with Apple Jack I went, and leaned up against a tree. I looked up at the apples, and smiled. I loved apples, for they were rare back before I was turned to stone, and they were my favourite treat. I knock my fist on the tree a couple times, and catch the apple that fell from my soft hits.

I ate the apple as Twilight finished whatever it was she was doing before I slid down to a seated position against the tree. I closed my eyes, and waited for the sun to set, but it wouldn’t, not for five more hours at least. So I decided on the next best thing. I started to hum my mother’s lullaby she would put me to sleep with when I was very young. I got caught up in the melody, and started to sing.

“Veni filios parum, ego autem ducam ad te, et praestigiae in terra.
Veni parum liberi, in tempore ad ludere, hic in horto umbrarum comprehendi videtur.
Post dulcis liberos, et ego tibi ostendam tibi in via, per dolorem omnem ac doloribus malis.
Flere miseros in uita hac caede speciem passionum.
Que nunc filioli oportet sic deceptionibus et tædere.
Requiesce liberis Nam et nos in placidus quiete.
Veni filios parum, ego autem ducam ad te, et praestigiae in terra.
Veni parum liberi, in tempore ad ludere, hic in horto umbrarum comprehendi videtur.”

When I was finished I had a small audience of the apple family, Twilight, and Spike. They were all sitting around me, and all were now slightly sleepy.

“Osiris, what song was that?” Twilight asks me. I smiled a soft smile.

“That was my mother’s lullaby.” I tell her.

“What’s it called mister?” A young earth filly, who had a big bow in her red mane, asked. I give her a soft, and kind, smile.

“She called it Children of the Night.” I tell them all.

“Could you sing it again?” The filly asks me. My smile grew at this.

“Yes, but how about this time I sing it in a language you can understand?” I ask her. She smiles at me, and nods with a ‘please.’ I take in a deep breathe, and let it out. I then started to sing once more.

“Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment.
Come little children, the times come to play, here in my garden of shadows.
Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way, through all the pain, and the sorrows.
Weep not poor children, for life is this way, murdering beauty, and passions.
Hush now dear children, it must be this way, to weary of life and deceptions.
Rest now my children, for soon we'll away, into the calm and the quiet.
Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment.
Come little children, the times come to play, here in my garden of shadows.”

The little filly was now resting against my lap, and half of the apple family had dozed off. I closed my eyes, and laid my head against the tree, and fell asleep myself.

“Osiris, you need to wake up.” Twilight’s voice tells me. I groan a bit as I wake up. During my nap my hood had fallen off, so I had immediately put my hands over my eyes, and growled in pain.

Suddenly my hood was on my head again, and I took my hands away from my eyes to see that Twilight’s horn dimmed from magic use.

“Thank you Twilight.” I tell her as I stand up from my position against the tree.

“Come on Osiris, we need to continue overseeing the preparations.” She tells me as she starts off back towards Ponyville. I just followed her back into town.

Twilight, Spike, and I were now back in town looking for a Pegasus mare named Rainbow Dash. I was curious as to why this pegasus was named as she was, but soon found out as she slammed into Twilight, and into a mud puddle. I saw this, and smiled lightly. She was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane.

“Heh heh, uh… s’cuse me.” The rainbow maned pegasus mare says as she gets off of Twilight. She then flies off, and gets a rain cloud before rinsing Twilight of her muddy mussed up mane. However the pegasus mare over did it, and drenched Twilight. I chuckle, and then watched as the pegasus made a mini tornado to dry Twilight off, but only succeeded in making her mane poof up in a ridiculous fashion.

The pegasus, and Spike burst into laughter, and I give a chortle of amusement as well.

“Let me guess, you’re Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asks the pegasus. Said mare stands up quickly, and puffs her chest out in a proud stance.

“The, one and only, why you heard of me?” Rainbow asks.

“Yes, but you are supposed to be keeping the sky over Ponyville clear, or have you forgotten?” I ask her.

“Yeah yeah, that’ll be a snap after I’m done training.” She nonchalantly waves my statement off with her hoof as she lies down on a cloud. I smirk as I get a small prank in my head.

“And did you also know that royalty is inside the village limits as we speak?” I ask her.

“That’s a lie, I aint seen Celestia here yet.” Rainbow says with another wave of her hoof.

“I was talking about me, but seeing as you’re doing a poor job at keeping up with your duties, I will just have to inform the weather manager in Cloudsdale of their lazy employee.” I say as I start towards to floating city.

“Is that a challenge?” Rainbow asks.

“I don’t know, but if you can clear this sky in less than one minute I’ll let your error slide.” I tell her.

“Hey, I can clear this sky, in ten seconds flat.” She boasts to me. I smirk, and then wave my hand for her to show me. She launches off of her cloud, turning it to vapour in the process, and then she does aerial maneuvers that destroyed clouds, and looked stylish. I couldn’t watch her destroy all of the clouds, but she landed exactly ten seconds after she started. I smirked.

“Well, I would say you’ve earned the rest of the day off, but don’t do this again.” I tell her as she lands without breathing hard. I looked to Twilight, and she had her mouth agape.

“Twilight?” Spike asks as he waves a hand in front of Twilight’s face. Rainbow Dash laughs.

“You’re a laugh Twilight Sparkle, I can’t wait to hang out some more.” Rainbow says and then flies off to somewhere that I didn’t care about.

Twilight pulled herself together, and we moved on to our next destination. The Town Hall; where a unicorn named Rarity should be decorating.

We made it there rather quickly as we were already near the center of Ponyville. Right as soon as we entered I saw that the interior of the building was neatly, and nicely, decorated. I then stop near the entrance as I sense that this is where mother would be returning.

“Twilight, there is something I need to tell to you. I will be staying here so that I may rest until night. I have a feeling that this will be where my mother will return, so I will need to be here to calm her as she will be angered for being locked away on the moon for so long.” I tell the lavender mare.

“If you say so, but will you be okay on your own?” She asks me.

“I will be fine I assure you.” I reply with a nod as I remove my hood, and sit down against a nearby wall. I easily, and quickly dozed off into my dreamless sleep.