Prologue: The Darkest Night
Watching the last rays of Celestia’s sun shrink behind the mountains of the Unicorn Range, Spike the Dragon turned from the window and walked down the stairs to the public floor of the 'Golden Oak Library' in the small town of Ponyville.
Spike went to getting started on his very important early night duties as Princess Twilight Sparkle’s number one assistant. The royal sisters had called the new princess to the royal city of Canterlot earlier that day, Spike has been running the library ever since.
It was just under a week before the upcoming Equestria Games, hosted by the Crystal Empire. Being the largest sports tournament in the country, the games has gotten everypony extremely excited. They were training hard to win the most gold medals for their hometowns. During training was the first time in months where ponies were not being skittish or distrusting of each other.
This distrust was not because of the elements being swapped around again, like the time two years ago when Twilight became a princess. No, this was because of the recent disappearances of various ponies in the northern cities of Equestria.
Over the last few months, there have been rumors of ponies randomly disappearing from large northern cities. When the press asked the princesses about this, Princess Celestia, along with Princess Luna, publicly announced in Canterlot that they were aware of the disappearances and already have been sending out search parties.
Around a week ago, Spike heard new rumors about the city of Vanhoover being a ghost town. Some say there is an unnamed group of ponies who are to blame. Numerous Equestrian national flags with a red “X” spray-painted over the lower half and a red unicorn head painted on the upper half, hung all over the city like some kind of calling card. That alone was enough to cause the spread of fear and distrust.
The princesses denied the existence of any group. Nevertheless, Twilight always seemed to be very disturbed about the topic. Whenever Spike asked her about the rumors, she urged him to never speak about it again.
Now, thanks to the games coming up, ponies trusted each other again in hopes that the games will bring everypony together for the chance to win gold medals for their cities and towns.
Spike dusted off bookshelves and rearranged some out-of-place books as he cleaned off various furniture around the library. Dusting and putting away the books left on tables and chairs by forgetful ponies.
Feeling like today had been a great day for the little dragon; Spike felt a strong sense a pride in his handy work.
“Not a single book out of place, Twilight will be very happy when she gets back.” He vaunted with a smirk.
Spike smiled to himself and walked into the kitchen. He flipped on a small switch on the wall next to the kitchen door, and a magic lamp in the ceiling sprung to life, bathing the room in a warm light. He smiled as he remembered the day when Twilight figured out a way to link up glow-crystals to switches using special spells, creating a lamp that didn’t need to be refilled or relit constantly. It revolutionized Equestria, making candles obsolete to non-unicorns for lighting up a dark area. The library already had several installed, as did many other houses in Ponyville.
Smiling at the pleasant memory, Spike picked up the broom sitting next to the doorway, he began to sweep away the day’s dirt from the kitchen floor.
He was busy cleaning the dishes when he heard the front door being slammed open from somepony bursting through it at a full gallop. Thinking that it must be Rainbow Dash returning her copies of Daring Doo at the last second, again. Spike thought nothing of it and went back to work. Then he heard Twilight talking to herself, sounding distressed about something.
He peaked out of the kitchen and saw nopony in the main room. Glancing upwards towards the stairs, he spotted purple from Twilight’s tail just as she rushed out of sight down the hallway to the upper floor.
“That’s funny, Twilight always announces when she gets home.” Spike thought to himself.
Spike walked out of the kitchen to the bottom of the staircase and called up to Twilight.
“Hey Twilight, is everything alright?”
He paused to listen for a response, but it never came.
He was about to call again when he suddenly remembered the letter he received from Princess Celestia shortly before Twilight returned. It was marked ‘Urgent! For Princess Twilight’s eyes only!’
Hopeful that an important letter from the princess would help brighten her mood. Spike rushed back into the kitchen and eagerly retrieved the letter from its resting spot on the kitchen table. When a sudden thud followed by a sharp crash came from upstairs.
The baby dragon jumped and dropped the letter in surprise; he raced out of the kitchen and up the stairs. He stopped himself halfway up, staring at the hallway leading into the study. An unusual light that changed to various colors of the rainbow lit up the hallway. Inside the room, Spike could hear Twilight rushing from one end of the room to the other.
Quietly, Spike got down low to hide and crept up the stairs to see Twilight galloping all over the room while levitating several pieces of parchment around herself. She looked like she hasn’t slept in over a week. With a severely disheveled mane and tail, large bags under her bloodshot eyes, and her lavender coat was filthy with dirt and stains.
The light that had been illuminating the room appeared to be coming from a gleaming sphere, floating in the center of the room. This light was not a comforting light like candlelight or sunlight, but was somehow very disturbing to him, in a way he could not explain. Almost as if, the light was seeping into his very being and haunting him.
Twilight teleported in front of the sphere with a single piece of parchment in her magical grip as Spike watched on.
“T…Twilight…?” Spike whispered in fear.
Twilight read the script on the parchment aloud and the sphere suddenly flashed so bright, he forced himself to look away with bright colorful spots in his vision.
When his vision cleared, Spike turned back to see that the light and parchment had both disappeared. Twilight was now sitting down in the middle of the room. She stared blankly at the wall while mumbling gibberish to herself, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Spike immediately rushed over to her side and placed his claw on her shoulder.
“Twilight? Are you okyiiiie!” Spike yelped as the mare suddenly turned around and wrapped him in a tight hug. Wrapping her hooves around him and sobbing over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry! I am so very sorry! She… she told me not to! But Luna said I had to, I-” She paused and began weeping even harder.
“Celestia will hate me, maybe even banish me when she... when she finds out.” She choked between sobs.
“Whoa! Whoa! Twilight, slow down!” Spike yelled to silence her and pushed against her to look into her eyes, “Why would she do that? What happened?”
Before she could answer him, he noticed that the room was shaking. Twilight’s horn suddenly fired up and her magic engulfed her body and yanked her from his arms into the air.
She levitated a few feet off the floor while clenching her teeth and her eyes shut in pain. Purple colored magical aura flickering around her body. Then it started swirling around slowly in a clockwise spiral outwards from her horn, appearing to drain from Twilight into thin air.
Spike suddenly felt the mother of all headaches explode through his head. Making him collapse to his knees and clutch his head in agony. To put it into simple words, it felt like somepony was trying to smash a watermelon with an oversized hammer. And his head was the unfortunate melon.
Fighting through the immense pain, he noticed that the walls and objects in the room were fading into duller, less vivid colors.
Spike felt an unexplainable gust of wind blow around him. Despite the windows of the library, being all closed. The “wind” blew out all the magic lamps and candles in the library. Aside from the glow coming from Twilight’s magic, darkness shrouded them.
Then Twilight’s aura suddenly disappeared with a bright flash of purple light at the tip of her horn, and the alicorn fell like a stone to the floor. Spike’s headache suddenly became much less intense as he gawked in horror at Twilight’s motionless form.
Forgetting his own pain, Spike rushed up to Twilight’s side and cradled her head in his arms.
“Twilight! Twilight! Are you ok?! Please answer me!” the dragon cried out desperately.
Twilight made no sounds or movement in response to Spike's pleas, he bit his lip, and tears quickly filled his eyes as he started thinking the worst.
Then Twilight started to stir a bit, weakly opening her eyes as she glanced at Spike. Tears started welling up from her partially opened eyes and she took a shallow breath. He let out a shaky sigh of relief and hugged her tightly.
“Spike, Please… forgive me.” She whispered weakly into his ear.
“W… What? Forgive you for-?”
Before Spike could finish his sentence, a ground-shaking booming noise, followed by several blood curdling shrieks outside the library rudely interrupted him.
Spike gently sat Twilight’s head back down, where she let out a small groan of pain. Then rolled onto her belly and clutched her head. He stumbled over to the nearby window and wedged it open. The unfolding events outside will be something he could never forget.
Outside, Spike watched in horror as all Tartarus broke out in Ponyville. The unicorns were rising into the air by their magic in the same fashion as Twilight was, only moments ago. While earth ponies and pegasi collapsed to the ground screaming in agony, clutching their heads.
Spike quickly figured out what made the booming noise after witnessing some unicorns having their horns violently exploding, instead of simply having their magic disappearing like the rest. They fell limply to the ground as a dark liquid pooled around their hornless heads. Those nearby where hit with debris and received blunt force related injuries.
A runaway carriage raced down a street near the library. Somepony had run into it and knocked its brakes lose. It careened down the slanted street, barreling through a group of ponies then finally taking out a shop at the end of the street.
Several late night flying pegasi fell out of the sky, clutching their heads. Some crashed into houses, leaving large holes in the walls and roofs. Other pegasi slammed into the ground, then laid motionless with dark pools forming around their bodies.
A gust of wind similar to the one before sharply blew around the library. It smothered out all the light sources in town, plunging Ponyville into an eerie moonlit darkness. The land, buildings, and everything in-between had their colors fade in an outwards wave like motion away from the library.
The lights of Canterlot went out on the horizon just as another explosion shot through the late night air, leaving only the outline of the large castle against the dark mountain.
Flying carriages ranging from nighttime taxis to mail carts also fell from the sky, dragging their pegasi pilots with them as they crashed into houses and the ground.
The distant explosions from the falling carriages and unicorns kept cutting through the night, as more ponies screamed and ran around in blind panic.
Horrified tremendously and slightly shaking, Spike turned away from the window and glanced at Twilight. She was now sitting on the floor with her head hung as low as she could. Simply staring at the floor with her eyes closed, refusing to look at him. Her body was shaking with silent sobs, tears dripping onto the floor.
“Twilight? Wha… What’s going on?” He uneasily asked her with a shaky voice, dreading on what her answer would be.
Chapter 1: A Daily Routine
~30 Years Later~
A sixteen year-old unicorn colt named Midnight Shade grumbled irritably to himself, as he walked silently down the busy streets of an old-time town named Golden Heights. The town got its name after the large gold mine in the hilltop slope northwest of the town.
Midnight’s coat is a deep blue with a spiky two-toned reddish brown mane, and a short wavy tail; his eyes are a dark blue violet. His cutie mark is a single action revolver overlapping a small slingshot, reflecting his natural talent of having exceptional aim for shooting targets with small weapons.
With the town’s current population of just under four thousand, Golden Heights is a large town in the present-day Equestria. Aside from some minor disrepair and fading paint, the town’s buildings are all still in good condition. The gold mine is still in use, but not on a large scale as it was in the old times.
Compared to the rest of Equestria, the town is still a safe place to live in. Thanks to its stable source of food from its farms, the twelve-foot tall wall surrounding its borders, and the guards. Unfortunately, the ponies who live in town are not all friendly, most have nasty attitudes, and fights are common.
“I hate being forced to go to school. I learn stuff I care nothing about, and the ponies there are just plain plotholes.” Midnight muttered while glaring down a passing mare, who returned his glare just as hatefully.
Because Midnight is the only known unicorn in Golden Heights, he retrieves a large amount of unwanted attention from others. An example would be fillies and colts giving him dirty glares constantly. Some even harassed him whenever they could, or just simply avoided him altogether. Even older ponies never liked his presence (especially the town’s guards), but most tried to keep it to themselves if he was nearby. However, what truly set Midnight apart was the unusual gem like growth in his chest. (But more on that later.)
“Hey you HALT!” called a voice behind him, snapping the colt out of his trance.
Sighing, Midnight turned towards an earth pony guard dressed in faded gold royal armor, trotting toward him.
“What?” he asked venomously.
The guard named Shield Charge scowled down at the colt, and cleared his throat.
“Midnight Shade, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me to your school for truancy,” he asked in a firm voice.
Midnight sat down on his hunches and spoke in a mocking tone, “Oh I’m so sorry sir, I think you might have the wrong unicorn. No, I’m not Midnight Shade; I don’t have any reason to be him. And I certainly don’t have anything to do with him not being here.”
Shield narrowed his eyes, then took a step forward and spoke with a growl, “Just cut the crap Midnight. I really don’t want to be dragging you back to school in hoofcuffs, again. Mrs. Inkwell told me to bring you back peacefully.”
Midnight scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Really? If this is your definition of peacefully, then I don’t think I want to know what you think hostility means.”
Shield’s eye twitched slightly, and he took a deep breath while gritting his teeth, “You’d better be glade that Inkwells’ part of Golden Heights’s council or I’d be bringing you back in hoofcuffs along with some broken bones.”
Midnight scoffed, then placed a hoof on his chin and glanced off behind Shield as if in deep thought.
“Hmmm, alright, let us think about my choices here for just one second. You want me; to choose between willingly allowing you to drag me back to that Tartarus you call a school, or to run away to certain freedom and never speak of this conversation again?”
He let out a short chuckle, “Those are some real tough choices dude.”
Shield sighed, then grabbed his hoofcuffs and quickly slapped it onto Midnight’s forehoof.
“Hey!” Midnight yelled out and tried to remove Shield’s cuffs.
“Just come on Midnight.” Shield said, placing his free hoof on his face as he dragged a protesting Midnight with him.
~~~~~
The two ponies traveled through town square in silence, until they reached a large aged schoolhouse near the wall.
“You know, you could just let me go and I won’t tell anypony.” Midnight offered as they walked up to the door.
“Sorry, no can do.” Shield replied as he knocked on the door.
Mrs. Inkwell, a middle-aged orange earth pony mare with a quill and inkwell cutie mark answered the door. Her face lit up when she saw Shield standing with Midnight at her doorstep.
“Ah! You found him! Thank you kindly Mr. Charge for your assistance.” She said cheerfully and gave Shield a subtle nod.
Shield grunted and took the hoofcuffs off Midnight, who snorted angrily as he rubbed his freed hoof.
“I’m always happy to help, Mrs. Inkwell. Give me a shout if he gets loose again.” Shield said with a laugh as he trotted off, leaving Midnight with Inkwell.
Inkwell waved goodbye then turned to Midnight, who was glaring at her and her smile faded, “Why do you always insist on skipping school Midnight?”
Midnight shrugged, “Well isn’t it obvious? I hate it here; it would be so great if I could avoid school altogether.”
He glared at her in the eyes and frowned, “But that will never happen since you keep sending the damn guards after me every time!” He looked away and sighed, “I still wonder why we even have guards.”
Inkwell sighed and placed a hoof to her forehead “Well Midnight, let’s think about that. Without the guards, our town would be a constant battleground just like the rest of Equestria. It is thanks to the princesses giving Golden Heights a portion of Royal Guard to protect us before the fall. They’re the reason why Golden Heights is one of the few places left in Equestria that’s still safe.”
Midnight rolled his eyes and pushed past Inkwell, “Oh please, don’t lecture me about two stuck-up princesses who died decades ago alright? It doesn’t help me at all.”
Inkwell sadly watched Midnight trot over to his seat and sighed as she closed the door, then made her way to the chalkboard at the front of the classroom.
“Alright class, now that Midnight has joined us. We can begin today’s lesson.” she announced and turned to write on the chalkboard.
“Yuppie...” Midnight muttered as he rested his head on his hoof.
A red pegasus filly sitting nearby shot him a glare, Midnight just shrugged at her.
“Alright class, today we’re going to be reading a few chapters out of your textbooks.”
Inkwell grabbed a large Equestrian history textbook out of her desk and opened it to the correct page, “Please turn to chapter sixteen and read through to chapter eighteen. We’ll be going over what you’ve read once everypony’s done.”
”Hey teach, shouldn’t we be worried about learning how to fight instead of learning boring crap about a dead country?” A brown pegasus colt with a dark blue mane and tail, and a chopping downwards fire ax cutie mark, asked her sarcastically.
“Hey! Equestria is not dead!” piped up a blue earth pony filly.
“Sure seems like it is.” Midnight mumbled to himself as the colt and filly glared at each other and Inkwell replied to the earlier question.
“Knowledge about the past can help you prepare for the future, and maybe at some point, it could help you avoid making the same mistakes the ponies before you made. And please don’t swear in class Ebony.” She finished with a stern glare.
Midnight watched the other students flip through their textbooks and he let out a yawn. He could care less about Inkwell’s lesson, since he has already read about the topic multiple times. He closed his book quietly, then laid his head on his forelegs and quickly fell asleep.
~~~~~
Midnight was getting to a good part in his dream when the old school bell rang, jolting him awake from his nap. The other students all got up and grabbed their saddlebags then headed toward the door before Inkwell raised a hoof.
“Remember class! We have a test next Monday on the subjects we reviewed, study hard! Have a nice weekend children!” She said cheerfully, and then motioned the students to leave with her hoof.
“Another test? Great, that sounds like fun…” he shook his head, “Well I guess I could try skipping class again, maybe I could hide on the roof this time.” Midnight muttered to himself as he got up from his seat, and walked to the door.
“Midnight, can I please talk to you for a second?” Mrs. Inkwell asked without looking up from her paperwork.
Midnight stopped walking, and faced her; she looked up at him with a hint of concern on her face.
“Listen, I know that you don’t enjoy being around the other fillies and colts. However, you really need to stop skipping class and talking back to ponies older than you, some of us are actually trying to help you. Believe it or not, I know what it feels like to not be accepted by others, just because they didn’t like me when I was a filly.” She explained.
Midnight’s eyes narrowed and he took a threating step, “Oh yeah? Well then, you’re not doing a very good job now are ya? And how are you supposed to know how I feel?”
He took another step, “How do you know what it feels like to be deemed a freak, just because everypony thinks your kind did something awful decades ago? How it feels to be the only unicorn around? How do you know how I feel, that around any corner, somepony could just take me off the streets and kill me because of what I am? And nopony would ever care!”
Standing up and pointing at his gem, he snarled, “Or because of this thing? I’ll bet you’ve never felt any of those feeling have you?”
Inkwell stared back at him grimly, and then let out a tired sigh. “I don’t know what that feels like Midnight, but what I’ve been saying is true, I have been treated poorly for being different. I know what it feels like to be left out. And maybe you’re right; there probably are ponies out there who are like that. But most of the ponies here in Golden Heights are not like those ponies. Sure, they may be grumpy, but they are not killers. Perhaps you should just try to give them a chance.”
She turned away and got back to her work, as Midnight thought over her words.
“Yeah, Chances are all I can count on these days.” Midnight muttered before walking off without saying another word.
~~~~~
After exiting the school, Midnight began to walk down the empty street ahead of him before turning deeper into town. Looking up at the clear blue sky, he began to walk his usual route around town. Trying his best to avoid bringing too much attention to himself as he walked, but he quickly grew painfully aware of the hateful glares.
He sat down and attempted to move his mane up with his hoof to hide his horn, but failed to cover it up completely and sighed sadly to himself.
“Heh, all I need now is a storm cloud over my head and I’d be all set.” He muttered, chuckling slightly to his light-hearted joke.
“Hey cone head!” somepony shouted towards him.
“Wow, as if right on cue.”
Midnight reluctantly turned around to see three older colts. One was a chunky red pegasus, with an orange mane, and a wooden spear for a cutie mark. Another was a short green earth pony, with a blue mane, and a blacksmith anvil as a cutie mark. The leader just so happened to be Ebony. All three of them were walking towards the unicorn with smug grins.
"Oh, hey feather lips, good to see ya! I see that you brought the overgrown foal and blubber plot with you. What can I do for you pricks?” Midnight sarcastically addressed each of them with his crude nicknames.
Ebony’s grin widened and he scoffed, “Oh nothing, we just wanted to congratulate you on being the most hated pony in town…”
“And for you being the last of your kind!” piped up the other pegasus named Javelin. Ebony turned and glared at him for interrupting, while Midnight just smirked in amusement.
Lifting his hoof, Ebony gestured to the other two ponies.
“Anyway, Javelin, Rivet, and I have taken it upon ourselves to give you a friendly beating for your achievement and your new title!”
Ebony’s grin turned cruel, “If you ask me, a unicorn like you should feel honored.” He spat out the word ‘unicorn’ as if it had a bad taste.
“Aww, really? You guys would do so much for little old me? How very kind of you! It’s just too bad I’m going to have to reject your offer though.” Midnight sarcastically replied, sitting down and placing a hoof on his chest in a mocking manner.
“Oh, well that’s a shame. But too bad for you, you’re not going to be getting away from us that easily!”
Ebony took a step back as Javelin and Rivet both charged at Midnight, who let out a yelp and leaped to his side. They flew past him and smashed into each other, knocking them senseless.
Thinking quickly, he regrettably remembered that he had left his slingshot at home. While he did own a gun, ponies his age were not allowed to carry firearms within city limits. The council wrote that rule to prevent ponies from being hurt or killed by stray gunfire during fights like this one.
Midnight looked around for anything he could use as a makeshift weapon, and saw nothing but dirt.
“Ohhhhh, Shit.” he cursed under his breath as he realized that he will have to fight two larger ponies, bare hoofed.
Knowing that he would be unable to fight off too older ponies unarmed, he decided to flee deeper into town to buy himself more time.
“Are you two done jollying around?” Ebony sharply asked his friends while they tried to get their bearings, and they just groaned at him.
He face hooved, then pointed toward Midnight just as he turned down an alley between two buildings, “After him you idiots!”
Hearing Javelin and Rivet in hot pursuit and quickly gaining ground, Midnight looked at the alley ahead and saw some empty apple cider barrels stacked on top of one another by the backdoor of a bar. He kicked one of them over as he galloped past, causing some of the barrels to tumble down and block Rivet’s path. The earth pony stopped himself just before he ran into them, only to have Javelin’s heavy feathered form slam into his backside. Causing them to tumble into a heap of hoofs and feathers, and the rest of the barrels toppled on top of them.
“Heh, mindless wannabes.” Midnight snickered as he watched them try to get back up. Rivet was pinned under a dazed Javelin before Midnight turned and galloped to the other end of the alley.
Upon exiting the alley into town square, he curved right and galloped down the street. Only to catch a glimpse of Ebony’s brown coat just before the pegasus body slammed him, pinning him to the ground.
“Gotcha!” Ebony chucked evilly.
Ebony pushed Midnight over and sat on his chest. He started to punch the unicorn in the face, while assaulting him with cruel unicorn-related comments.
“You know, Golden Heights would be so much better if we didn’t have an animal like you around to take away everything we care about!” Ebony spat in disgust, then leaned in close to Midnight’s face and tapped his gem, “Just like what your kind did to the rest us thirty years ago.”
Midnight grabbed a large hoof-full of dirt and threw it into Ebony’s eyes, who recoiled back in pain and brought his hoofs to his face with a yelp. He kicked Ebony in the chest and pushed the blinded pegasus off himself.
Snarling, Midnight shoved Ebony down onto his back, and then jumped onto his wings. Causing a pained cry from the pegasus, then he started to beat on Ebony’s forelegs and face.
“You think that just because of what I am, gives you the right to harass me every day of my life?!” Midnight screamed as he attacked Ebony, who held up his forelegs to protect himself. “Making me feel even worse about myself thanks to stupid unicorn rumors?! My race had nothing to do with that night! You hear me?! NOTHING!!!”
Midnight would have continued to wail on Ebony, but he had his attack cut short by a nearby guard. Who saw the fight and pulled him off a badly beaten pegasus.
“Ugh…” Midnight grunted and stared at the blood on his hooves, Javelin and Rivet showed up with a high-ranking pegasus guard named Armored Fortress.
“He started it officer!” Javelin cried out while pointing a hoof at Midnight.
Ebony weakly rolled over onto his side, then coughed up some blood onto the ground. He had bruises and cuts all over his face and forelegs as he held a hoof to his bleeding nose, and was developing two black eyes. Midnight had a bloody nose with some bruises on his cheeks and muzzle.
“I did not blubber plot! And you know it!” Midnight shouted at Javelin as he broke out of the guard’s grip, and tried to lunge at the fat pegasus. Javelin flared his wings in surprise. Armored lunged forward and tackled Midnight, before he could attack Javelin.
“That is enough! There will be no more fighting here today, do you understand!?” Armored shouted at Midnight and he shoved the unicorn’s face into the dirt.
Midnight glared up at Javelin with a hatful snarl, then saw the small crowd of ponies that had stopped to watch the fight. They were muttering things amongst themselves, things like ‘Monster’ or ‘Dangerous’ and he closed in eyes in rage.
“Fine,” Midnight growled through clenched teeth, and Armored let him up but still held a hoof on his shoulder.
Armored turned to the first guard, “Take the pegasus to the hospital then go make the report to the council, I’ll escort the unicorn to his house.”
“I know my way home, I don’t need your help.” Midnight spat as he pushed Armored’s hoof away.
Armored grabbed Midnight’s shoulder again and shook his head firmly. Midnight scowled at him, then let out a defeated sigh.
~~~~~
Midnight raised his hoof, wiped some blood away from his muzzle as he limped home with Armored following closely. Midnight glared back at Armored and saw the guard scowling at him, he was probably thinking about the problems that Midnight makes by just existing. Snorting, he turned away and looked out toward the valley that the town overlooks.
“Man, it would just be so nice to be out there.” He muttered to himself.
He glanced up and watched the sun draw closer to the horizon; he started to think up of some sort of excuse to explain the guard and being home late to his parents. However, they were not very forgiving in such matters anyway. Despite his efforts, he was unable think of anything other than his hatred of pegasi, namely Ebony.
~~~~~
They arrived at his house ten minutes later just as the sun fell behind the trees. His house had light brown timber-framed walls, with a thatched roof and a smaller second floor stacked upon the first. The other houses and buildings in the town all had similar designs, but had variation in wall color.
Midnight motioned off Armored, who was more than happy to leave and walked up to the front door. He licked his hoof and tried his best to clean himself up, and patched up his mane. Then he took a deep breath, and opened the door.
He walked in to see that his parents were already sitting at the dining room table, eating dinner with a few lit candles lighting up the house. He stood at the door for a few minutes, before uneasily clearing his throat, making his mother’s ears twitch slightly.
“How was school?” Midnight’s mother, a light green earth pony mare with a red and blue mane and cooking pot cutie mark, solemnly asked without looking up from her food.
“Ehhh….it was alright I guess,” Midnight responded while scratching behind his head, and then a sly grin grew on his face, “Oh wait a minute… I forgot to mention. I got into a fight after class.” Midnight finished smugly.
His mother turned her head toward him and narrowed her eyes with a scowl, “Where you hurt?”
“Not too bad, just a bloody nose and a few bruises.” he replied before snickering lightly, “Although I can’t say the same thing for the other guy-”
He stopped talking when he noticed that his mother had turned away from him, signaling that she wasn’t listening to him anymore. His father, a yellow pegasus stallion with a dark purple mane that had blue highlights, and several bits for a cutie mark, just simply grunted into a ‘The Golden News of Equestria’ newspaper he was reading. Other than his father taking a large swig of his saddle arabian brand vodka and his mother glaring irritably at her husband, neither said another word to Midnight.
While he was glad that they didn’t yell at him, it still hurt to be ignored. Sighing quietly, Midnight turned away from the table and made his way up the stairs to his bedroom. The only place where he could finally have some peace and not having to worry about others glaring at him. He let out a tired sigh as his hooves clopped against the hardwood floor of the hallway. He past his parent’s room and the bathroom then pushed open his own door.
Midnight’s bedroom wasn’t decorated too much, since he did not own many possessions. It had pale yellow walls, a wooden floor, and a white ceiling. A switch that was connected to a useless magic lamp in the ceiling, sat in the wall next to the door. A bed sat in the right corner on the far wall, a large body mirror in a corner by his door, and a medium sized chest with a few things he did personally own stored in it under his window on the left wall. A small nightstand with a candle, and a wind up alarm clock resting on it, stood next to his bed. A large bookshelf with some books from the old times sat in the far left corner by the window. He also had a small walk-in closet between his bed and door, which his parents used as extra storage. A single lit candle hung from his wall to the upper left of the door, lighting up the room at night.
Midnight (though he never admitted it to others), loved to read books about the past and to learn of the world and how it was before he was born. He had a small collection of “barrowed” history books about the old times, when there were more unicorns and of course, Magic.
Shaking his head, he closed his door then sat down in front of his mirror to examine his nose and bruises. After wiping the dried blood away from his nose and checking his leg, he then turned his attention to the gemstone in his chest.
The gem in Midnight’s chest is a little larger than his hoof, has eight sides like an octagon, and is dark green like an emerald. It also glows faintly, a glow that flickered in unison with his heartbeat. The stone has been in his chest for as long as he could remember. He recalled the day when his parents told him that the doctors never removed it when he was a foal, because they said that the gem had taken over the job of keeping his heart pumping.
Since the stone lies right in the center of his chest. Midnight’s heart and sternum fused into it at birth, deforming them. His heart is missing the sinoatrial node and the gem is somehow generating an electrical current to make his heart beat, thus removing the gem will cause his heart to stop instantly. Because of that, the doctors had no choice but to leave it there.
“Heh, Thanks to this damned stone. I’m just a freak of nature, not only a unicorn, just a simple freak of nature.” He thought aloud as he poked at the stone.
Snorting, Midnight reared up on his forelegs and bucked the door of his closet, putting a hole into the wood, “Why did I have to be born into this Celestia forsaken world?!” he shouted in fury.
Midnight stood there in the middle of his room shaking, blinking tears from his eyes. He craned his neck and watched as his gem’s glow flicker quicker and he felt his heart beating harder. He hissed in disgust and forced himself to look away, shaking his head.
“Oie, Midnight! Stop making that awful racket!” Midnight’s father shouted from downstairs.
“Sorry dad!” Midnight called out before growling.
Midnight stood up and trotted over to his bedroom window, keeping it closed to keep the cold air out and he looked up at the now star filled night sky. Watching Princess Luna’s moon slowly rise over the horizon, he glanced down at the chest sitting at his hooves. He shrugged, then opened it and glanced at the contents. A baseball, a large slingshot he used to shoot empty soda cans, several steel ball ammunition for the slingshot, a deck of cards, and an eight shot pony-styled revolver (it had a large ring on the right side of its handle, and a large lever as its trigger) with extra bullets. He pulled out the revolver, and gave its chamber a spin.
He absent-mindedly watched it come to a rest, as his mind wandered back to what Ebony had said during their fight. “Just like what your kind did to us thirty years ago.” His face contorted with disgust as he recalled the stories. Stories of ponies blaming the unicorns for the disappearance of the world’s magic. How they ran unicorns out of the surviving cities, how ponies killed unicorns for trade and slavery, some even treated them as criminals. Even in Golden Heights, many ponies had similar opinions about unicorns as Ebony did, but rarely took it out on Midnight thanks to the guards.
Aside from the fight with Ebony, the most abuse Midnight got around town was dirty glares and rude comments. While if he were outside the town, he would be easy prey to slavers, raiders, or sick ponies who kill for sport. Even Midnight’s parents got harassed from the townsfolk, which resulted in his father to take on drinking and his mother to become uncaring to Midnight and abusive towards her husband.
“I’d do anything to leave this town, anywhere is better than here.” He thought glumly.
Midnight trotted over to his nightstand and placed his weapon down on it, then trotted over to his mirror and overlooked himself again.
“Well this stupid thing is part of me and I’m still alive, so I guess it’s not too important to others to kill me over.” He thought as he poked at the gem.
He glanced at his gun, “But at least I’m prepared for when it does happen.”
While Midnight has never actually had to use his gun against anypony before, other than waving it around a few times to scare off some would-be attackers. He still learned how to fire it properly by practicing shots with a makeshift target in his backyard, which is how he earned his cutie mark. Midnight gave himself a satisfied nod, turned and picked up a candle douter and extinguished the candle by his door, then trotted next to his bed.
He didn’t bother to say goodnight, since he knew that he wouldn’t get an answer anyway. He tiredly crawled into bed and glanced out his window. The moon now sat in the upper half of the window, with the unlit town below.
“All because of one night, the whole world has been knocked off its hooves and into complete chaos.” He thought as he let out a yawn, “Heh, whoever caused this… Darkest Night must have bucked up really bad to make this big of a mess.”
He looked at the moon one last time, then turned back to blow out his candle and drifted off to sleep.
