Chapter 1: Conflict ResolutionView OnlineBalanceChapter 1: Conflict ResolutionConflict Resolution In a world where there are two distinct sides to everything, how much would you give for a little grey in between? That is what you must ask yourself as you read this tale, because in a world of polar extremes, one would desire grey areas. This tale has a beginning, middle, and end. The ending will be tragic, and the middle will be fraught with emotion and pain, but I do not want to spoil the story for you... As we are, starting in the beginning, as we must for the story to tell its' tale, there is a young unicorn filly named Equinox, she has a coat that is somewhere between black and white, a nice deep grey, and her mane has a glorious silver sheen. Her eyes have striking violet irises with streaks of white in them. She has yet to earned her cutie mark, but she has a feeling that she is getting close to earning it. She has a soft Canterlot accent, and she recently moved to Manehattan. This is where our story begins. “Wake up Equinox, time for school!” Equinox's mother called out. “Just five more minutes?”, Equinox called out, hoping to get a tiny bit longer before having to start her morning routine. “You need to get up now, you don't want to be late for your classes” the mother replied. “You are already running behind as it is, you have 45 minutes to get ready and out the door if you want to catch the bus”. “Fine, I am getting up now, just don't give me that lecture about how I am lucky to be able to go to this school and that I should feel good about learning new things”. “Don't worry, mommy won't lecture her little snuggle-wuggle since she is so cute when she is tired.” “Mom! You know I am too old to be treated like a foal!” “But mommy loves her little snuggle-wuggle.” Equinox huffed and decided to drop the conversation, as it was starting to become circular. At school, Equinox does very well in most of her classes, her best being Magical Theory and Application, while her worst is Ancient Equestrian History. At the end of each school day, students are given an hour to spend time with friends and classmates before the bus arrives to take them home. As Equinox goes outside to meet with her friends, she hears a loud ruckus and familiar voices. “I don't care if you called first, it is mine and I get to go first” “I called first, it doesn't matter who owns it, since we are both playing the game” “But I learned a new transformation spell in my class today and I want to try it out.” “You can try it out when it is your turn!” As the fight escalated, Equinox opened the door to see her friends Bright Lily and Wind Stream about to exchange blows. Quickly grabbing them both in a levitation spell she begins to yell. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU TWO ARE DOING!” Lily opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by Wind. “Lily here won't let me go first even though I called first.” “It is my ball and I want to try my new transformation spell on it!” Lily interjected. With a sigh, Equinox puts on her neutral 'lets sort this out like grown mares instead of foals' face. “Wind, do you think you could let Lily go first, she does own the ball and she did learn a new spell today. And if I recall, you always go first normally.” “I still called first... but I guess I could let her go first since she almost never does.” “Now I want you to apologize to Lily for your inconsiderate attitude towards her.” Wind let out a sigh. “I'm sorry for being an inconsiderate jerk Lily.” “That's good Wind. now Lily, I know you want to try your new spell, but you let your anger get in the way of common sense, you could have simply asked Wind and explained why you wanted to go first. Now I want you to apologize to her for letting your anger get the best of you.” Lily turned to Wind. “I am sorry for letting my anger get the better of me, and I hope you can forgive me for my mistake.” “I accept your apology, and you can go first if you really want to.” “Thank you for letting me go first Wind, and thank you for helping us sort this out Equinox.” “Yeah Equinox, thanks for helping Lily and me sort this out. You are really good at settling arguments.” With that, Lily and Wind went out to the yard to try their spells on the ball, leaving Equinox surprisingly pensive about that last statement Wind made. 'Hmm, I did settle that argument quite well, and now that I think about it, I was always the one who helped sort out issues between friends.' She felt a sudden itching on her flank and as she turned to look she saw a flash of light. As the light faded, a black and white yin-yang with a silver outline appeared. With a jump that would make one think she could fly, Equinox let out a yell. “OHMYGOSH! I GOT MY CUTIE MARK! I HAVE A CUTIE MARK!” Her screaming drew the attention of everyone in the yard, and several ponies approached her to congratulate her on her achievement. As she realized what her cutie mark means, that she can settle issues with anyone, and that she can find the silver lining in any situation, Equinox felt a surge of magical power within her. The next day of class, in her magic class, her spells were stronger than normal, and she was having a hard time controlling her magic. It seemed that she had the magical strength of two unicorns, not one, and she was struggling to re-learn how to control her magic.
Chapter 2: Halves and OppositesView OnlineBalanceChapter 2: Halves and OppositesHalves and Opposites Excited about her new cutie mark, Equinox decided to gallop home to show her mother instead of waiting 45 minutes for the bus. She knows that she should avoid the back streets and alleys, but she is too excited and takes a few 'shortcuts' on the way home. Little does she know that one of these faster routes is blocked by a gang that uses dark magic. Turning the corner to the alley, Equinox crashes into dark magic spell circle. Due to a magical fluke, the spell is distorted as the casters are distracted by her sudden appearance. “ARRRGAAH!!” Equinox screams in intense pain before blacking out. When she comes to, the dark spell-casters are nowhere to be seen, and she has a mind-splitting headache. She looks into the sky and sees that it is almost sundown. Galloping as fast as she can, Equinox tries to get home before the sun sets. She takes off up the steps to her home, enters the house, and is immediately scolded by her mother. “Equinox, where were you?! You had me worried sick!” “Sorry mom, I was out playing with my friends, but I did earn my cutie mark!” “That's great! I bet you are excited about it.” “Yeah, I am pretty excited. I got it when I settled an argument between two of my friends. They were fighting over who got to use a spell ball first, and I helped resolve the issue.” “Well, how would you like to have a party this weekend to celebrate?” “I would love that mom,” Equinox suddenly lets out a big yawn. “I'm tired, I think I am going to go to bed, and we can plan the party tomorrow.” “Okay my little filly, you have a good night's rest and we can talk about the party tomorrow.” Equinox climbs into bed about a minute before the sun sets, she immediately falls asleep. As the sun sets and the moon rises, a dark glow starts to emanate from Equinox. Her mane turns pure white, and her coat turns a deep black. The black half of her Cutie mark disappears, and the silver outline slowly fades away. She starts tossing and turning as she starts dreaming. She is looking in a mirror, seeing her new black coated self as the reflection. The reflection's eyes are a striking electric blue, and they are glowing with a faint white aura. The reflection's cutie mark is the white half of her own. Suddenly, she gets sucked through the mirror. Looking back, she sees the exact inverse of her previous reflection, instead of a black coat and white mane, she has a white coat and black mane. She looks at the reflection's cutie mark, and sees the black half of her cutie mark. The white mare in the mirror opens her eyes slowly, revealing blood red irises and a faint black aura. Equinox woke up with a start, then a sigh of relief as she realized that it was only a dream. Deciding that her throat is dry, Equinox makes her way to the bathroom with her cup for water. “AHHH! This can't be happening!” she yells as she looks at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, only to see the black mare from her dream. Her mother walks into the bathroom to see what has Equinox so upset, only to find a black mare in front of the mirror. “Hello? What are you doing in my home?!” “Mom?” “What is going on here?!” “I don't know, I was having a nightmare where I looked like this, then I woke up. I decided to get a glass of water and I seem to have changed” “We need to get you to a doctor, this is not normal.” “Mom, I think this can wait until morning, I feel fine, besides the surprise of not looking like myself.” “Okay, but tomorrow after school we are going to see Dr. Health Point.” Equinox goes back to bed, and has trouble falling asleep for some reason. When she finally gets back to sleep, it is almost sunrise. When sunrise comes, Equinox starts to glow bright white. When the glow finally fades, she awakens to find herself as the white mare in the dream.
Chapter 3: The Darkness WithinView OnlineBalanceChapter 3: The Darkness WithinThe Darkness Within After a strange night, Equinox was brought to see the family doctor, Dr. Herbal Remedy. After waiting in the waiting room for forty-five minutes, Equinox is called back to the room. The nurse takes her blood pressure and weighs her, then tell her to wait for the doctor. The door opens, and in walks Dr. Remedy, “Hello there Equinox, what seems to be the problem?” “I'm not sure doctor, I had a weird dream last night, and my cutie mark and appearance changed.” “Really now? I have never heard of anything like that before. Can you tell me what you looked like before?” “Sure, I had a dark grey coat, with a silver mane and tail, and my cutie mark was a black and white yin-yang, and I had purple eyes.” “I see, has anything strange happened to you before this happened?” “I am not sure, I remember leaving school yesterday, but I can't remember anything between then and when I got home.” The doctor thinks for a moment before responding, “I see, we can do a mental examination and see if we can recover your lost memories during that time, it could help. Of course we would need parental consent and everything, but I feel that it would be worth trying.” “My mother is out in the waiting room if you would like to see if we can do that.” “Okay, I will have one of the nurses fetch her.” The doctor leaves the room for a minute, and he returns with Equinox's mother in tow. After Dr. Remedy explained the situation, Equinox's mother decided to go ahead with the memory treatment, and they are asked to go into the waiting room until the mental specialist is free. After about an hour and a half of waiting, they are finally called back and led to another room. “Hello, I am Doctor Clear Thoughts, and I am going to try to restore your memory that is missing. Can you sit down and tell me when you left school yesterday, so I can find the missing memory?” “Well, I left school around two fifteen or so, I am sorry, I cannot remember exactly when I left.” “That is fine, I just needed a ballpark time frame, let us begin.” The doctor casts a memory viewing spell, and begins to track the memory stream for the offending gap. After a while, he finds the blank area, and starts to put mental effort to try and clean up the interference. “Ugh, where did all this interference come from?”, the doctor mumbled as he tried to clean up the mess. As the interference finally clears, something interrupts the doctor's efforts... “Well, the interference is clearing, I better hurry up and view the memory before I leave her mind.” ~“I do not think you will be leaving here as easily as you hoped.”~ stated a menacing voice that seemed to come from everywhere. “Huh? What? Who is in here?” ~“A better question would be, 'Will I get out of here alive', but that is just what I would ask in your situation.”~ “Okay... Will I Ever-” The voice cut off the doctor. ~“The answer to your first real question is simple, I am the manifestation of anger, violence, and pain, in Equinox's mind. As for the second question, not if I have anything to say about you leaving without severe mental damage, I will try to keep it in mind though.”~ The doctor tries to end the spell, but as it is fading, his mental self suddenly feels a sharp metallic stab to his side from a mental blade, and the spell fades to darkness. Dr. Clear Thoughts immediately entered a state of neurological shock, and he would never be able to live without life support. The hospital management comes to the room to tell Equinox and her mother that they will not be taken to court, but that they are not welcome to use any mental services until the end of time, or if the hospital shuts down for good. The memory doesn't come back, but Equinox can now see some very disturbing flashes of things. Things like dark mage circles and misfired spells.
