It is the first night, and the most daunting one that a pony can imagine. Night Glider stands on the edge of the grey evening clouds; now merely black shadows in a moonless sky. The clouds roll over the valley that houses her home… her new home, her old home.
It is hard to tell which now.
Today had been the day that Princess Twilight and her friends had helped free Night Glider’s town from the clutches of Starlight Glimmer. Tonight was the first time that Night Glider had been able to stand upon these clouds feeling whole. Tonight she is complete again.
Not five hours ago had Night Glider had left the little village to arrange the night’s weather. Since she had claimed to be experienced with weather control, the town had had no problem with having her organize tonight’s weather.
Without hesitation, Night Glider had said her goodnights to Sugarbell and Party Favour, and had taken off into the darkening sky. She had been very excited at the prospect of being able to actually do something, instead of the nothing she had had before. She finally felt whole, and wished to use her abilities to assist the town, which had actually surprised her, to be honest. Never before had she been so excited to organize weather.
There were reasons for that; reasons which Night Glider never liked to recall. Reasons that always linger in the back of her mind.
Since she had been so excited to organize the weather earlier, imagine Night Glider’s emotions when she still found the actual task of it to be unsatisfying. It was not the fault of anypony but her, for she could not stop thinking about what had transpired today, and what it meant for her.
She had been restless, and in her restlessness the memories which she had eluded for so long had returned to her. Night Glider had tried to resist, but she found that task as futile and unsatisfying as organizing the weather; which was almost impossible with her mind where it was. She had decided not to bother pushing herself to complete the task.
Instead, Night Glider had created a small breeze, and had left the sky to its own devices.
Now, she looks down from the edge of her grey cloud, staring deep into the unlit valley that marked her town. Was it HER town? She didn’t’ know.
To anypony looking from down below, Night Glider would appear as nothing more than a dark shape astride the edge of a gigantic wall of clouds. The wall was on a slow slide over the dome of the sky, as if somepony were slowly tucking the Equestria under a soft, pillowy blanket.
That was only the view from the ground, however. In the space above the clouds, the stars shone their brightest. Thousands of pinpoints of light on a dark blue canvas, equipped to dazzle the mind of the ponies that saw it.
It was a shame that the ponies in town could not see the sky tonight.
Though the stars were pinpoints in the sky, the whole scene looks… alive… as though the night sky were a living, breathing thing. The glow of the stars twinkles and changes, making the lights flicker in the dark, like little fireflies high above her.
Night Glider had always thought of the stars as watchers in the night. Little sentinels, sitting on their own clouds far above the reaches of anypony else, guarding the skies. Each sentinel carried a lantern, so that it could reassure the other watchers that it was there. In turn each watcher signaled itself to the others, and the night sky would never be lonely.
It was only a fairytale, but Night Glider had loved it, and preferred it now to anything else. In the time before she had come to the town she had taken solace in her little night sentinels… it had made her feel less alone.
Night Glider’s life had been a solitary one, though it had only ever been the result, and not the cause of her arrival at the town.
Despite all the wrong that Starlight had said when she was the town’s leader, she had been right about one thing. It was a differing in opinion that had lead Night Glider into disarray.
There she had been, creating a breeze and leaving it behind, to fly away from the town, and into the distance. Night Glider had flown for a great time, beyond the mountains, beyond forests, beyond everything. She had continued her flight along an unknown path, and had only stopped when she had spotted a light on the cliff of one of the mountains she had been flying past.
Night Glider had landed in a tree copse near the light; which had turned out to be a small cottage on the cliff side. She had snuck near the house, and peered into its lit window, finding old memories waiting for her.
Inside the cottage was a small family of ponies, sitting down for a late dinner. By a lit fireplace sat an old stallion in a rocking chair; his mane and tail long and grey, and a thick silver beard to match. By the apparent dining room table had sat two little fillies, each young and bright eyed, who seemed excited by some unperceived event. At the counter by the table a large mare was arranging bowls of dinner for her family, Night Glider assumed that it was her husband standing next to her, assisting.
All had seemed well with the family, until a young colt had stepped down from upstairs.
His mane was unruly, his tail was unruly, even his expression was unruly. He had proceeded to sit down with the rest of the family, to eat his dinner among them, but it felt different after that. The entire mood of the room had shifted from peace to tension, with the whole family teetering on the edge of some great expression of their passion.
As Night Glider watched, the family ate their dinner in silence… which had only lasted for a short time. Eventually, the old pony had spoken, though Night Glider had no idea what he had said. Regardless, the unruly youth had suddenly snapped his head up from dinner at the olden pony’s words, and he spoke himself; likely making some clever retort to the old stallion's comment.
That had been the absolute end of peace at the table, and in moments the entire family was shouting at each other across the table. Night Glider still could not tell what was being said, but the volume of the pony’s voices was rising as they tried to subdue each other. Even the fillies yelled; making their own little screams apparent among their larger family members.
The argument rose to its inevitable high, and in a fit of rage the young colt had taken his bowl of food and had dashed it against the wall, spilling its contents to the floor. He stormed towards the front door of the cottage, and as Night Glider watched he barged his way out of the house and ran down the cliff path; still raging at his family.
Night Glider left the cottage after that, but only in body. Her mind was still on that cottage and its inhabitants, for they could have been an exact copy of her own family.
From her parents to her granny to her little brothers, all of Night Glider’s family had demanded that she become what they wished of her. They wanted her to be a weather pony like her grandfather. In fact, much of her life had been training to become just that. It was the family business, and she was required to join in on it.
This was not what Night Glider had wanted, and from the day she had decided that her life had become a never ending war with her family. It was the greatest war of her life, the war to decide her destiny, and Night Glider did not want that destiny to be a weather pony.
Night Glider looks up at the stars again, continuing her endless train of reflections.
If she hadn’t wanted to be a weather pony, then what did she want to be? The truth was… she didn’t know. She had probably just wanted to follow her own path, not the one her family had set out for her. She wanted freedom, and that was not possible around her family.
So, without major hesitation, Night Glider had left her home behind. It was made all the easier by her lack of relations with anypony else, meaning there were no friends to cut ties with.
Night Glider never had a friend, not until she came to this little town near the mountains.
She had been wandering for so long… completely unaware of herself. She had no destiny, no friends, nothing. When she first met Starlight Glimmer, and heard about her chance for fulfillment, she had never been happier.
To Night Glider’s eyes, the stars shine brighter than she hadsever seen them; much like the night when she had her cutie mark removed.
It hadn't been taken from her, like with Twilight, but given. She decided to leave her mark behind, if it meant the attainment of friends… of purpose. To Night Glider, her cutie mark had brought nothing but pain. It was only ever the cause for argument in a family that tried too hard to control her, and she had been glad to be rid of it.
And yet, life without her mark proved itself to be just as bad, if not worse.
Life in the village had been mundane, unfulfilled, and absolutely unending. Though Starlight had sworn she would be happier without her mark, Night Glider felt just the same as before… only emptier.
Back before the town, life was angry, and conflicting, and confusing, but it had also been wondrous. Night Glider had still cared about going out, seeing the world… making friends. But the loss of her cutie mark had made all of that seem as pointless as trying to fly to the moon.
She lost all interest in life outside the village, hell; she lost all interest in LIFE itself! She only cared for the day to day, the unending cycle of her life under Starlight Glimmer. For an eternity she had followed her without thought, or opinion, and cared nothing of the fact that she lacked both.
Until Princess Twilight and her friends came to town. They had inspired new and great thoughts in Night Glider; breaking the day to day routine. She began to question why she followed Starlight in the first place, and whether or not she was really happier without her cutie mark.
The rest, as they say, was history.
Night Glider’s wall of clouds roll over the mountains and into the valley in which her town sat; giving off some small light of its own.
She never imagined what she would find on her way back to the town. The little breeze that she had made had gathered the surrounding clouds into one gigantic entity, which was flowing over the sky towards Night Glider’s home. She had decided to ride on them the rest of the way, which would give her time to think.
Night Glider’s thoughts turn back to Twilight, back to Starlight. Both ponies claimed to know what true friendship was, but which one was right was a mystery.
Was Starlight truly wrong about what she had said?
Of course, using everypony in the town for her scheme, lying about her mark, and trying to hurt her so called friends had made Starlight bad, but did that mean her ideas were too? Was it truly equality that gave ponies good friendships?
Night Glider did not know what to think about everything that had happened. It had been easier before, when she could follow the will of the crowd and claim that as her own ideals, but now she was alone. Now she must decide for herself what was right about her world… what her purpose was.
Twilight had shown Night Glider that ponies can be friends despite their differences; did that make her right and Starlight wrong? Did being the hero make her right? Did being the villain make her wrong? Perhaps it was the perspective that defined the victory.
No, that wasn’t it. Twilight was definitely right. When she first came to town, Night Glider had made friends with Party Favour and Sugarbell, but she hadn’t felt happier. Now, with her mark back she feels better than she's ever felt before. Twilight’s form of friendship was definitely better than any other.
Still, Night Glider could not help but wonder what it was about those two… how it was they came to seem so far above the ponies around them. It was like… being near Celestia: She’s there but she also seems leagues above where you are. What made Twilight and Starlight so much… more… than the ponies around them? What made them completely resolved in their decisions?
With a very small epiphany, Night Glider realizes what sets these ponies apart.
They have reasons. They have a cause to fight for.
That was the one thing Night Glider always lacked. She had never had reasons to do things… she had never had a purpose.
It was so easy to follow Starlight, and then Twilight, because they HAD reasons. Fighting for them had made Night Glider feel like their reasons were her reasons. She'd been given a purpose, and it made her feel good.
As she thinks about it now, Night Glider sees the perfect irony in that line of thinking. She ran away from home, had left her life behind in order to escape a destiny. And upon being faced with actual choices, fell into despair. She had then accepted the philosophies of others as easily as breathing, and without hesitation. The hilarity of her hypocrisy makes her want to giggle.
So… if she was now free to make her choices… then what should she choose? After all of their time away the old problems begin to gnaw at Night Glider again.
She is no longer bound by the philosophies of others, so what is her philosophy?
Night Glider’s thoughts wander, and she looks back over the day she has just had. Not only had she reaffirmed her friendships with Sugarbell and Party Favour, but she had made some new friends as well. Life is now colourful, free, and… not empty. Night Glider can choose her path; she only need decide what that path is.
Now, she has a town, she has friends, she has an actual responsibility to the ponies she lives with, in a much greater way than she had with Starlight.
Now… Night Glider has a purpose to act towards.
Her friends.
She looks to the town, now directly below her. Down there are the ponies that depend on her, who expect her to help them, who DESERVE her help.
They are the need for her to stay there… they are her home.
Night Glider closes her eyes, and falls off the edge of the clouds; opening her wings as she does so. She begins to soar down towards her town.
Towards her reasons.