Night Dust: The Child Prodigy (prototype story)

Chapter 2:

The First Day

-4 years later-

Night Dust clung to his mother's hooves as he slowly followed her into the bright red building, it was a small center that looked it was built from Ancient Architecture, with columns filled with floral patterns, statue's of Foals and Fillies with halo's hovering above their heads and a bright Pink sign that read, "Foals and Fillies Fun Center", it was bigger than his home, and it felt very intimidating to him.

"Mum....?" he croaked, while tightening his grip on her as they entered the building.

"Yes, sugarplum?" she responded with a sweet smile.

"I....I don't like this place," he said as he blushed at a young mare who glanced at him with a grin.

"It'll be alright sweetheart, I'm sure you'll make new friends here," she assured him, she spoke with the receptionist, as he looked over the reception room, the wall's were filled with bright blue wallpaper with several Pegasus and Unicorn patterns, there were some child drawings of Pegasi moving clouds, Unicorns levitating objects, Earth Ponies farming in large green fields, and a very sketchy picture of the Crystal Palace.

Nightdust heard a door swing open, as the receptionist walked out from behind the counter and looked down at him with a smile, she was a tan orange mare with a long red and pink mane that reached down to her shoulders, he hid behind his mother, as she chuckled at the little's foal's shyness, "Awww, they're alway's so nervous on the first day here."

Nightdust peeped out and felt embarrassed about hiding from her, his mother nudged him toward her, he swallowed hard as he followed the young mare to the glass door's that stood next to the reception desk, she opened it as he slowly went in, he looked around and gazed at the open room, it was brightly lit with brown forest wallpaper and sky blue ceiling paint.

He noticed three ponies look at him with curiosity, one of them was a green unicorn filly with black and green streaked mane and long tail, the other was a red pegasus with a short purple mane and tail, the green one walked up to him and observed his appearance, "Uh......um, is something wrong?" Night Dust muttered.

The third pony, a grown colt with glasses with a white and blue mane stood up and chuckled, "Oh no, my lad, ho ho ho, young Rose always observe's new friends that come into our fun center, she can perceive a filly and foal's feelings through examination of body language."

Night Dust looked at him confused, he had no idea what he meant and what he was talking about, the filly sighed as she stopped the older colt from talking, "Basically, I can tell what you're feeling by the way you're shaking right now," she explained, "Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself," she bowed her head and greeted him with a hoof shake, "My name is Rose Stem, this is my father."

She pointed to the colt behind her, as he cleared his throat and took his glasses off, "a Pleasure young Night Dust, I'm Earth walker, but you may call me, Mr Walker," he chuckled.

Night Dust nervously shook his hoof as he noticed the Pegasus standing behind him, he had a very mischievous smile, and a daredevil look in his eye's, that Night Dust didn't know who to be imitated more by.

"Hiya, the name's Ace Flight, you can call me Ace!" the loud Pegasus shouted, Night Dust backed away a little and felt more than ready to bolt for home.

"Don't be frightened by him, he's always like that," Rose muttered, Ace heard her comment and angrily got up in her face, that she didn't even flinch.

"Just waddya mean by that, sis?!" he exclaimed, she smiled slowly and pushed him away.

"I mean, that you're alway's showing off in front of the new kid's that come by here, its no wonder they hang out by the other's."

Night Dust watched the both of them argue on and on, it was so bizarre to him that two siblings could be fighting over the silliest thing, he stiffled a laugh for quite some time until he could no longer contain it, he bellowed a small giggle as the two ponies stopped their bickering and stared at him.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Ace asked him.

"You guys.... are so strange, but..... I kinda like you guys," he said with a smile.

Ace stared at Rose, who looked just as surprised as him, she shrugged, and walked up to him, "Hey, would you like to play with us today, Night Dust?" she asked.

He looked at the both of them with great admiration, Ace gave him a cheeky smile while he scratched his mane, Rose smiled sweetly at him while she kicked a bit at the floor, he smiled and nodded, "Okay, lets go play," he said.

"'Alright, C'mon," Ace shouted as he ran across the room to a small corner of building blocks, Night Dust looked at Rose who just shook her head with a smile and walked with him to where Ace was waiting.

He sat in front of the blocks as Ace cleared his throat, "Ok, newbie, couple of rules we gotta lay down, Rose?" he called her to explain them as Night Dust began to relax a little, knowing he met some new friends, maybe this day wouldn't be half bad after all,

"First rule; no fighting or bad speeches, we want to treat everypony the way we want to be treated," Night Dust nodded in agreement and allowed her to continue, "Rule two; listen to any instructions from the teacher, emergency or no."

"Ok, anything else?" he asked her, "Just the last one, and this is important," she said professionally, Ace rolled his eye's and groaned, while Rose glared at him, "anyway, Rule Three; if any stranger from outside tries to talk to you while Mr Walker isn't here, you call for us."

Night Dust nodded but stopped when those last three word's hit him, "Um, why do I need to call you?" he asked her.

Before she could speak, Ace stepped in front of her, "Cause we know how to deal with ponies who try to mess with others, we may not look like it, but we can handle strangers." he boasted as he thrust his chest.

Rose stepped in and gently pushed him away, "We as a team can use our awakened ability to defend other ponies from harm, even if our abilities aren't fully awakened yet, we can handle at least one colt."

Night Dust didn't fully understand what she meant by abilities or working as a team, but he understood their commitment, he nodded in Acknowledgement and began to move the building blocks, Ace and Rose both smiled at each other and began to play with him.

-6 hours later-

Night Dust, Ace and Rose were all huddled in a circle recounting the day they spent together, they spent their time building bonds with each other, playing lots of games outside and inside, sharing morning break together, and by the end of the day, Mr Walker read all the fillies and foals a children's book.

It was a story of a young Colt who became jealous of a filly who was the best flier in all of Equestria, he was desperate for some form of recognition that he consulted an ancient Unicorn who would give him the power to be anything he wanted, but he had to help him conquer Equestria's Capital City.

He accepted, but in turn, his body transformed into an embodiment of heartless envy, his heart became stone, and his eye's became as dark as the night itself.

He returned to take over the Equestrian Capital, all seemed lost and hopeless, but through the words and voice of the young Pegasus filly, the colt's eye's flashed, as he saw images of his family and friends, they all played together, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company.

At the sight of his flashing memory, a single tear dropped from his eye as it melted the cold bitter stone body around him, vanquishing the evil Unicorn and returning the colt to his former self.

"-and so the Colt and the Pegasus filly became the best of friends, forever happy and never fought each other again, The End!" Mr Walker said as he closed the book.

Night Dust stared at the book as he placed it in the shelf, he couldn't help but think of the Ancient Unicorn that had helped the colt become an Idol, all for throwing away a Capital City.

"Hey, Night D, you cool?" Ace piped up as he looked at him with a serious stare.

"I'm.... fine," he replied, he shook as he pushed the book into place, Ace looked over at Rose, who just shook her head and trotted up to Night Dust.

"The Unicorn isn't real, you know," she said, Night Dust glanced at her slightly as he walked slowly to the other side of the room, Rose sighed as he caught up to him with Ace following her, before she could speak, Mr Walker spoke.

"Stories like that teach us what we should watch out for in life," he explained, "That Unicorn represents what happens when we make the wrong choice when we try to force things in life, but we aren't alone, because someone will be there to pull us outta trouble," He finished with a smile.

Rose and Ace nodded in agreement and smiled at Night Dust, who stood there speechless and rubbed his hoof with a small grin, "Besides, we're friends now," Ace said.

"And we'll always be there for each other," Rose finished.

At that moment, Sunny and the Receptionist walked in, Night Dust beamed at his mother and ran in for a hug, she cuddled him and giggled at the Receptionist, who smiled back at her. "Mum, I wanna show you my new friends," he said excitedly, he grabbed her wing and pointed to the pair of siblings who smiled at Sunny, as she smiled back.

"That's Ace, and that's Rose, they're the best," Night Dust said with a grin.

"Well, its great to meet you two, I'm Sunny Sweet, Night Dust's mother," she said as she shook hooves with each of them.

"Its great to meet you, Mrs Sweet." Rose said in a calm mature fashion.

"Hiya" Ace piped, "Me and Sis both had a lotta fun with him, we're gonna be the best of friends," he boasted, Rose rolled her eye's and smiled at her brother's comment.

"Well, its good to know my wittle Nighty has made some new friends here," she said in a innocent tone.

Night Dust blushed and scratched his mane and whispered, "Mum, you're embarrassing me."

They all laughed as Night Dust smiled at his new friends, who in turn smiled back.

"Well, I came by to pick up my wittle boy, come on Night Dust, home time," she called to him, his face saddened a little as he took a last look at his friends, who waved happily at him, he waved back as he followed his mother.

"Oh Night Dust, don't feel down, you'll see them again," Sunny assured him.

Night Dust brightened as excitedly asked her, "When?" she smiled sweetly at him.

"Tomorrow, silly."

Night Dust laughed happily as the sun began to set, "Come on, lets go home, I'm making Special Spaghetti Surprise!" Sunny said happily.