The Equestria Offensive

Sparkle Family Home, 8:28 A.M., March 21st, 2013

“Midnight, wake up.”  A faint voice came out of the blackness. “Midnight, we need to get going.” As he opened his eyes,  he could see a blurry purple shape, pushing him in his bed. “Midnight!” He was suddenly forced out of his bed, and onto the floor. Twilight was standing over him with an impatient smirk across her face. “You sleep in way to long, Midnight.”

“Yeah, I think I get it from Rainbow Dash.” He replied nonchalantly from the floor.

“Well, hurry up! We gotta get going to the library.”

“Wait...” Midnight sat up scratching his head, “Why am I coming with, again?”

“You said last night that you were gonna come with me to the library today.”

“Oh yeah; that. Well, I guess we better get going so you can see your little ‘colt friend’, Starbuck.” The lack of any care in Midnight’s voice was obvious. He clearly had no interest in coming and would rather stay in his comfy bed. But, nevertheless, she still decided to drag him along. After all, she still wanted him to have a positive image of Starbuck, and she knew he would be there. And she definitely wanted to spend time with him.

“Well, come on, Midnight. We need to get going.” Twilight said as she stepped to the doorway.

“Yeah, let’s get going.”

“You’re really not excited about this, are you?”

“Twilight, I’m tired. Nothing is exciting to me.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But still, we can make this fun, can’t we?”

“We’ll see, Twilight; we’ll see.” The two stepped out the door; Midnight, shutting the door behind him. They stepped from the hallway to the living room; their parents sitting in the same spots as every morning. “Mom, Dad, Twilight and I are going to the library.”

“Okay, then. You two have fun.” Their father dismissed them, not taking his eyes off of the newspaper in front of him. Realizing that their dad was captivated, neither of them bothered saying anymore, and set off out the front door, on their way to the library.

“So Midnight, is it okay if I ask what you find wrong with Starbuck?”

“Didn’t we go over this last night?”

“We did, but I guess I’m still kinda curious what you have to say.I don’t have anything against him, I just don’t wanna see you going out with somepony I don’t know.”

“Just give him a chance when we get there. I’m sure you’ll come to like him, eventually.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” The two had arrived quickly; a little quicker then usual. Right as they stepped in, Midnight went straight up to the front counter. “I’m looking for a book on the language of Caelian.”

“Oh, why certainly. I’ll have Starbuck show you where it is. Oh, Starbuck!”

Starbuck peered around the corner of a bookshelf. “Yeah, grandma?” Then Midnight caught his attention. “Oh, hey Twilight. H-hi, Midnight.”

“Oh, so you already know each other. Well then, Starbuck, this nice young colt has a book he’s looking for. Would you please help him find it?”

“Umm...s-sure.” The small drips of sweat beating down his face, and his obviously fake smile made it obvious that he had felt intimidation from Midnight.

“I’m looking for a book to help me learn Caelian.”

“S-sure, th-that’s in the n-non-fiction section...”

“Well, thank you for telling me, then. I think I’ll go find the non-fiction section on my own.”

“O-okay. Have fun!” Starbuck was quick to dash around the corner, and get away from Midnight. And right as he was out of sight, Twilight punched Midnight in the side.

“Ow! The hell was that for?!”

“You came here so you and Starbuck can get along.”

“Well, he seems like he’s afraid of me.”

“So make it that he’s not afraid of you.”

“*sigh* fine!” Though Midnight obviously had no interest in Starbuck, he still trotted over to find him. “Hey, Starbuck. Wait up.” Starbuck stopped in the aisle, trembling where he stood. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Then what do you want from me?”

“I just want to get to know you so I know you’re not gonna hurt my little sister, okay? Come on, why don’t you show me where that book is? Maybe you could tell me a little more about yourself.”

“A-alright...follow me.” Midnight could see Starbuck was still afraid of him. Yet, he still held no interest in showing that he truly cared about Starbuck. He only wanted what he felt was best for Twilight, which was making her happy.

“So, what do you usually do in your free time?”

“Well, most of the time, I’m just reading whatever I can find in my family’s library. I’d kinda like to spend more time with Twilight; she seems really sweet,and I’d like to get to know her more.”

“Yeah, just watch yourself, boy. Don’t try anything you’d regret me knowing about.”

“Don’t worry, Midnight. I won’t do anything I wouldn’t if you were there.”

“Good. Just remember,” Midnight pointed his hoof at his eyes then to Starbucks, glaring him down. “I’m watching you.”

“*gulp* I’ll be sure to remember that.” Starbuck said as they made there way into the non-fiction section. “Alright, let’s see.” He scanned the bookshelf for Midnight’s request. “Ah, here we are.” He said as he pulled a little yellow book off of the shelf. “The Language of Caeli. This is what you’re looking for, right?”

“Perfect, thank you.”

“N-no problem.” The sweat beating down Starbuck’s face as he gave Midnight a big fake smile made it obvious that he was still afraid of Midnight.

“I’ll see you around then.” Midnight replied, quick to dash around the corner of the bookshelf. Starbuck let out a small sigh of relief as he was relieved from his stress of Midnight’s presence.

“Alright, Twilight. I got my book. You ready to go?”

“Just a second, I’m just looking for one more book.” She scanned the top shelf of the bookshelf labeled, ‘romantic fiction’. “Ah, here it is.” A blue book with a coarse gold lining lit up in purple as it levitated from the shelf to the top of a stack of books on the desk in the front of the library.

“Is this everything, Twilight?”

“Yes it is. Thank you, Mrs. Ray”

“Alright, I’ll just check these out for you, quick.”

“Oh wait, I have one too.” Midnight interrupted.

“Oh, that’s right. You wanted to check out the book on learning Caelian, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, well then. You can just go ahead and keep it.”

“Really? You’re giving a book to somepony you don’t know.”

“Nopony ever checks out any of our language books, and if you’re Twilight’s brother, I’m sure you can be trusted. You have the nicest little sister a pony could ask for.”

“Wow, well, thank you.”

“No thank you needed. It was my pleasure. Let me just finish checking out Twilight’s books.” A blue light surrounded the book at the top of the stack and floated down in front of Mrs. Ray, folding open on the desk.

“Jeez, Twilight. Do you normally get this many books?”

“Actually, I usually have more. I have plans for the day, so I don’t have as much reading time. It’s how I usually pass my time while we’re in Canterlot.”

“Wow. Have you ever tried getting out of the house more? I mean, I’ve been balancing my time between spending time with our mom and dad and spending time with Dashie.”

“I’m getting out of the house today, aren’t I? I think that counts.”

“Yeah, I guess. I never really see you as the one to leave home that often.”

“Okay, that’s the last one.” Mrs. Ray interrupted as she levitated the last book to the top of the stack. “Happy reading you too. I’m sure I’ll see you again tomorrow, Twilight.” The stack was surrounded by a purple light as they floated over to Twilight.

“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Twilight replied as she trotted out the door, Midnight following behind her, and shutting the door behind himself.

“Wow, what a nice librarian.”

“I know she is. She’s one of the nicest ponies I’ve met in my life. Not to mention, how much Starbuck takes after her.”

“Oh, don’t give me that, Twilight. Just because he has a nice Grandmother.”

“Midnight, he’s afraid of you. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to him?”

“Of course I do. I’m showing authority.”

“But you don’t need to show authority.”

“Well, of course I do, Twilight.”

“*sigh*, whatever, Midnight. But, no matter what you say, I’m still going to be spending the day showing Starbuck the rest of our friends.”

“Fine, but just remember, don’t do anything you wouldn’t if I were watching.” Giving his final regards to Twilight, he picked up his wings and flew off into the sky past the high rooftops of Canterlot.

“Oh, Midnight. I worry for you sometimes.” Nevertheless, Twilight had plans. Midnight’s actions had to be the least of her concerns. She did, after all, want her friends to give their best impressions of themselves and Midnight. She thought that five other ponies giving a positive opinions of Midnight would help Starbuck to not be so afraid.

Twilight had planned to meet the rest of her friends with Starbuck in Hay Stack Cafe, a small, family-owned Cafe, in the middle of down town Canterlot at 9 that morning. After Midnight had went to bed, the night before, Twilight had began thinking “Maybe if Starbuck could meet the rest of my friends, they could help me show Midnight isn’t as bad as he presented himself. I can talk to them in the morning before I wake Midnight up.” And so she did, not but two hours before they had gone two the library that morning. Though most of them didn’t appreciate an early awakening, all of them understood Twilight’s concerns for Midnight, and were obliged to help her out.

Hoping for something to come out of this, Twilight began making her way through town, looking for the Hay Stack Cafe. As she walked down the busy Canterlot streets, she kept thinking “Why is Midnight acting like this? He’s never hated anypony without a good reason before. I just really hope my friends will be able to change Starbuck’s mind for the better.” Just a few buildings ahead was a small wooden sign, hanging from the side of one of the many short buildings crammed together in one large wall of buildings, that read ‘Hay Stack Cafe’. And just under the sign, resided Twilight’s friends, all gathered at a table, waiting for Twilight.

“Hey! There’s Twilight!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as Twilight drew nearer. The rest of the girls looked over and called for her to sit with them.

“Hey girls, you all know why I called you here, right?”

“Why of course.” Rarity answered. “To try and show your new colt, Starbuck was it?, the good side of your brother, Midnight. I’m sure he has enough good qualities we could tell Starbuck about to make him change his mind.”

“He sure does.” Applejack sighed as she stared off into space, fantasizing. Rainbow Dash and Twilight both gave her a quick glance that told her to take this seriously. “Err...sorry...”

Rainbow spoke up then. “Well me and Fluttershy know him the most. I’m sure we could convince Starbuck easy! Right Fluttershy?”

She tried to speak. “Well...yes, I mean...-”

“Of course we can convince him!” Pinkie interrupted. “I mean, come on! We all know Midnight and what he’s been through, like how he went to flight school with Dashie and Fluttershy, and how he got hurt in the rainboom accident, and how he got possessed by Nightmare Moon, and how-”

“Pinkie Pie!” The other girls yelled simultaneously. “We know about it all already!”

“Yeah, save it for Starbuck.” Rainbow spoke over them again.

“Heh...sorry girls. Guess I was getting a little carried away there.”

“Well you are Pinkie Pie, we all kinda got used to it a while ago.”

“Girls.” Rarity said. “Might we get back on topic here? We still need to figure out what exactly we’re going to tell Starbuck.”

“Well it looks like we don’t have to wait for long.” Twilight said, gesturing down to the end of the street she came from. Starbuck was trotting along the road towards them.

The other girls turned to see him. “So that’s Starbuck?” Rainbow Dash asked

“I say Twilight,” Rarity said. “based off what you’ve told us about him, his looks, and your personality, I’d say he’s perfect for you! Not all too shabby either.”

“Hey Twilight!” Starbuck said as he arrived at the cafe. “These must be your friends you told me about. Hi, I’m-”

“Starbuck!” Pinkie Pie interrupted. “Twilight has told us so much about you! Like how you met at the library, and how you went on your first date in the park, and how you both kissed, and how-”

Applejack pushed her hoof forcefully to Pinkie’s mouth. “Mighty sorry ‘bout that Starbuck. Pinkie Pie here tends to get carried away with herself.” She turned to Pinkie Pie then, hoof still shoved in her mouth. “Now are you gonna keep it under control?” Pinkie slowly nodded her head. Applejack put down her hoof.

Pinkie Pie stood there, licking her lips. “Mmmmm, apples!”

Rarity came up and extended her hoof towards Starbuck. “It’s so wonderful to finally meet the colt Twilight has told us all so much about. How do you do, my name is Rarity.” Starbuck shook her hoof with his.

“Howdy there, the name’s Applejack, nice to finally meet’cha!” She shook Starbucks hoof excitedly, like she does with every new pony she meets.

“Uh, yeah...” Starbuck managed to say while trying to keep his balance after the dizzying tremor of a hoofshake.

“And I’m Rainbow Dash!” Dash announced, coming, seemingly, from nowhere. “Fastest flier in all of Equestria! I’m sure you’ve heard of me from other ponies that Twilight here, right?” She got up really close to Starbucks face, awaiting an answer.

Starbuck began sweating nervously. “Um...yeah, I...you’re Rainbow Dash, of course, the...uh...” Twilight quickly leaned over and whispered something into his ear. “The new leader of The Wonderbolts! Right! I hear about you from everypony!” Dash went back over to her seat, a satisfied look on her face. Starbuck looked back over to the last of the girls there, who hadn’t introduced herself yet. He walked over to her. “And you must be Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy looked up. “Oh, yes...um...hello.”

“Sorry, Starbuck.” Twilight added, “Fluttershy can be very timid around new ponies.”

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. I can be the same way around new ponies, too. I’m still a little too timid around Twilight’s brother.”

“What do you find wrong with him?” Rainbow added, “He can be a little scary at times when he’s angry. He nearly scared Fluttershy out of her fur the first time they met. But underneath, you just gotta get to know him. I’ve been dating him for years now.”

“Well, if you must know. The first instant I had met Midnight, he was blowing up in my face for dating Twilight. I had no idea it would’ve been a problem. I didn’t really know what to do or what I did to provoke him.”

“You didn’t do anything. Midnight was just being a little too protective.”

“Hehe, yeah. Midnight can be a little too over protective sometimes.” Rainbow Dash said. “You should’ve seen him when some colt tried hitting on me when we were vacationing in our hometown of Cloudsdale. Let’s just say that that pony’ll be heading for the hills if he ever sees Midnight again.”

“Rainbow.” Twilight glared at her from across the table. “That’s not really helping.”

“Sorry. Just believe me, on most occasions, he’s the nicest pony you’ll ever meet. He’s been through a lot of negativity in his life that he comes off to new ponies a mean pony. I can talk to him later about how he’s acting. I’m sure I can convince him.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. Though I’m not so sure that’ll help too much.”

“Don’t worry about it. I can convince Midnight to do anything. And I mean anything. Right, Applejack?”

“Hehehe, yeah. Midnight was pretty amazing last night.” Applejack light-heartedly responded as she stared off into space.

“Aaanyways.” Rainbow Dash said, “Just believe me when I say he’ll listen to me.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I’m happy to see that Twilight has such a nice group of  friends. I’d really like to see Midnight’s good side for a change.” Starbuck replied with a breath of relief in his voice.

“So, what did you two talk about when you were showing Midnight where his book was?”

“Nothing much, he just asked me what I do in my free time. He was kinda nice about it, but he clearly told me to not do anything I wouldn’t if he were around and told me that he’s watching me.”

Little did Starbuck, or the rest or the group know, Midnight had been watching them for quite awhile. Secluded on a 3rd story roof top, not too far from the Hay Stack Cafe, Midnight had been watching Starbuck’s movements; paying close attention and not letting Starbuck make any rash decisions. “Whatever path you take, wherever you might go, and whenever you decide to leave, I’ll follow. I’ll follow you, Starbuck. Um...wait.” he flipped open his Caelian book that he had next to him. “O’ss zussuj...auy...ehijnihi auy...ku. Hmm, mnuli iruykn.” Midnight set the book back down and looked back to see Starbuck, wrapping his arm around Twilight, with her read resting on his shoulder as the two sat at the table together. “You little fucker, get your hoof off of her! No no, Midnight. Calm down. He’s not doing anything. He’s not...gonna...take Twilight...away.” Though trying hard to deny his overprotective paranoia, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that Starbuck was trying to separate Midnight’s family. “*sigh* Just ignore it, Midnight. Twilight’s not going anywhere yet.”

Midnight reluctantly just kept watching from his distant rooftop, rather than charging in. For hours he had followed and watch the couple, intent on not letting anything go wrong. This had become his routine as spending time together had become theirs. Everyday, for the next three weeks, Midnight had followed Twilight and Starbuck all around Canterlot.

The night was still young in Canterlot as the dimly lit moon shined over Nom Restaurant Chic. It was the night of Twilight and Starbuck’s 1 month anniversary; Starbuck only thought it to be fitting to make the night special. Their dress was simple yet casual; a sleek black tuxedo with a red boutonniere for Starbuck, and a nice lavender dress for Twilight. The food they had ordered was nearly gone. Starbuck had almost finished his spaghetti while Twilight was just finishing the last of her salad. “That was delicious Starbuck! I just feel so bad that you’re paying for all of this. It must cost so much!”

“Oh it’s nothing, really, I get paid surprisingly a lot of bits while working for the library and my grandmother.” A waiter came over to their table and gave them a check, which Starbuck paid without skipping a beat. All the while, Midnight was watching them, just waiting for Starbuck to slip up so he could prove to Twilight that he was right. He can just swear he heard Twilight saying that she felt bad. Though he knows this could just be his paranoia, he listens closer and more carefully from then on.

“I’m so lucky to have found you, Starbuck.” Twilight said, raising her head to give him a kiss on the cheek. They both blushed bright red right then, which just so happened to make Midnight turn red too, though from anger rather than love.

“Heh, that’s my line.” He bent forward and placed his lips onto hers, enjoying the warmth they gave each other. This was the last straw for Midnight. His rage had almost completely boiled over. Twilight and Starbuck were still deep in their passionate kiss, when Twilight heard something. She looked over to where the noise was and saw what appeared to be steam rising from a tree. She broke the kiss then.

“Oh no...” She said silently, anticipating what she already knew...that Midnight had followed them, and did not like what he had just seen. When she broke the kiss, Starbuck followed her gaze towards the tree, also noticing the steam.

“Oh no...” Starbuck repeated. Right then, a small burst of flame shone within the tree branches, and a black, fire-maned alicorn appeared from it. He flew straight at the two ponies, making them both take a few paces back from each other. Midnight landed between them, staring Starbuck down; fire quite literally in his eyes. Starbuck, nearly paralyzed with fear, still had enough sense and muscle control to keep backing away from Midnight as he crept ever so closer.

“Midnight!” Twilight tried to scream at him. “Midnight, stop! Just stop it! Right now! Midnight!” She kept trying to pull him back, kept trying to talk sense into him, but he was too consumed with rage.

“How dare you...” Midnight said in a low, guttural tone. “How dare you even lay a hoof on my sister, let alone kiss her!” With each passing word his flames grew bigger, brighter, and hotter. Sweat was pouring from Starbuck now. Sweat from fear, though, not the heat.

Starbuck couldn’t take it anymore. He began to sprint off towards his home, and as he was speeding away, he yelled back. “I’m sorry Twilight! I just don’t think this is going to work out!” He ran until he was out of sight, tears streaming down his face, tears for fear of his life, and tears of losing his love.

Midnight just stood there, watching as Starbuck faded into the distance, calming down so that his flames were extinguished. “Feh, look at him! Leaving you behind. That little-” But he was cut off by the sounds of sobbing. He turned around to see Twilight bent over in sorrow, crying into her hooves. “Twilight, why-”

“No, Midnight! Just no! I don’t want you to even talk to me right now! You just ruined any chance of me finding love!” She screamed at him though sobs.

“Hey! I was only protecting you! You don’t know what’s best for you, I do!”

“What’s best for me?! Midnight, I found somepony that shared so many things with me! We laughed together! We cried together! We’ve kissed a lot more times than what you just saw! We shared so much together, had so much in common... I loved him and he loved me! And you just ruined it!”

“Twilight...you don’t understand what love is...you’re my sister, and I love you, that’s why I had to get him away from you. He would’ve just torn us away from each other, just like before. I don’t want our family to be apart again.”

“Midnight, our family wouldn’t break apart. It would’ve grown! We were going to have such a happy life together and you...you just ruined everything!” She turned to run away.

“Twilight! Come back here! Twilight! Why can’t you see I did this for our family?! Why can’t you just-”

Twilight stopped, she turned around, and she screamed as loud as she could. “What do you know about our family?! You were gone! You don’t know anything! And as far as I’m concerned, you’re not apart of this family!” She turned and was about to run again, but then she said, just loud enough for Midnight to hear. “I hate you!” And with that, she ran home, to go to her room and cry herself to sleep.

Midnight stood there, seething with more rage than ever, but it was quelled by an even more powerful feeling of hurt. The twang of pain that shot up through his body at his sister’s last words only coaxed the flames of his anger even more. “Well fuck you then!” He screamed out into the night. Just then, he noticed a small commotion behind him. He turned around to see other ponies watching him, obviously having seen their fight. “What the hell are you looking at?!” The other ponies immediately tried to find something to preoccupy themselves with to keep them from angering Midnight even more.

Then Midnight, not really wanting to go home to face all that again, flew over to the stadium, where Rainbow Dash and the other Wonderbolts were staying. He went down a hallway, eventually reaching a door with Dash’s cutie mark on it. He opened the door a bit too forcefully, waking Dash up from a nap. “Wuh...huh? *yawn* Midnight? Why are you here?” She asked while rubbing her eyes.

Midnight was pacing all around the room now. “I just got into a small fight with Twilight, it’s nothing...”

“Oh Midnight...you didn’t break her and Starbuck up did you?”

“So what if I did?!” He snapped back. “All I’m doing is protecting my family, and if a few fights happen to pop up because of it well then so be it!”