A lone unicorn trotted down an old beaten dirt path, with a wagon full of random items, ranging from strange metal contraptions to bags of clothes, all the while the unicorn was grumbling. His name was Nightshade, and he was on his way to see his brother, Dusty Trails. He was a gray unicorn, with a black short messy mane, with an electric blue stripe running through it, with a matching tail. He had a black vest on, and a pair of matching black glasses that were in front of his intimidating emerald eyes. His cutie mark three gear cogs with a red flame enveloping it. As he walked down the path, he came across a sign that said “Ponyville 1 quarter of a mile”. He let out a happy sigh.
“Thank Celestia, I’m almost there, stupid conductor for not letting me on the train.” He continued to grumble. “Out of all the things that could’ve happened, why did my house burn down!? Argh!” He continued on his way. “Lucky for me, Dusty was nice enough to let me stay with him until my house is repaired in Manehatten. Ugh, we haven’t seen each other since our fight, I hope he can forgive me for what I said.” His look of anger turned to a look of sadness. He could never forget the look his brother had when he stormed out, what he said was really bad.
“Well, he wouldn’t let me stay with him if he didn’t forgive him, but I should have a talk to clear anything still between us.” Nightshade looked up and saw a sign on top of a small hill. He fixed his glasses to try and see better. It looked like it said ‘Welcome to Ponyville’.
“Yay! I finally made it! I don’t know why my brother chose such a small and quiet town like Ponyville to live in.” Nightshade said to himself. “Well, he did always seem to be into farming.” He said, starting to climb the hill. “And why do I keep talking to myself?” He said, scratching the back of his neck. “Dusty might have a point, maybe I should try to socialize.” He shook his head angrily. “What am I thinking, I don’t have time to make friends! As soon as my house gets rebuilt, it’s straight back to Manehatten, and this time, I am not losing my ticket.” Nightshade finally made to the small hill, which turned out to be very steep on the other side. He looked at the sign from earlier, which did say ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ on it.
Nightshade unhooked his wagon from his back and sat down. He looked down over the town. “Well, this is Ponyville, seems nice, hope I don’t stick out like a sore hoof, everypony probably know each other.” He looked up when he saw a something zoom by. A blue Pegasus was taking out clouds. “Hmm, maybe she knows where…my wagon went?” The gray unicorn looked around frantically for his belongings. He saw, halfway down the hill, his wagon was speeding away from. No one was at the bottom, but given the speed it was going, it was going straight for what seemed like town square. Nightshade facehooved. “Of course.” And with that, he started to run after his wagon. He began to yell and shout, just hoping it wouldn’t hit anyone at the bottom. Nightshade saw something land on the wagon, and saw the blue mare from earlier. She had a messy rainbow mane. “Don’t worry, I got it.” She yelled, and flew behind the wagon and started to pull, using her wings to help her stop it. She was able to stop the wagon in time. Nightshade quickly ran to the side and grabbed a satchel and looked inside with the strange looking cylinders, luckily nothing seemed to be damaged.
The mare looked over his shoulder, and grabbed one of them.
“Why are you so concerned about these” she said looking it over. Nightshade grabbed it with his magic, putting it in the bag and closing it. “It’s just some very important items, and don’t touch them!” He said, smacking away her hoof as she tried to get another one. “Sorry, who are you? I never seen you around before, are you new?” Nightshade looked at the curios mare in front of him. Yep, like a sore hoof.
“I don’t tell my name to random ponies.” he said, going over to his wagon and hooking himself to it. “But thanks for helping me though.” Nightshade said, before walking off. He heard her take off and land in front of him. “Hey, wait a minute! I just helped you stop your wagon from hitting anypony in town, at least tell who you are, here I’ll go first, I’m Rainbow Dash.” She said holding out her hoof. ‘She’s persistent.’ Nightshade thought ‘I need help finding my brother anyway, I doubt telling her that much won’t make us friends, but just somepony helping another pony out. I do not want to make friends here, I just want to get my work going again, and I’m behind as it is.’
“My name is Nightshade” He said shaking her hoof. Her mouth dropped. “You’re Nightshade?” He nodded his head, getting nervous. “And you’re related to Dusty Trails, right?” he nodded again, getting more nervous by the second. “Dusty would not stop talking about you when he got your letter! This is so funny!” ‘Great, my brother is friends with this mare, looks like I’m going to be seeing more of her, ugh.’ “How do you know my brother?” She started giggling like crazy. “I’m his marefriend” ‘What! Oh come on! That means I’m going to have to pretend to like her, like all his other marefriends.’
Nightshade put on a smile. “That’s great, can you tell me where I can find him?” She nodded. “Yeah, he said he was heading to Sugar Cube Corner for a snack while on break. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.” She said, taking off. I followed, having no other choice. “Maybe my friend is there, and you can meet her.” Yay, more friends…
10 Minutes later…
The town was a lot bigger than up close though. They turned a corner to see a giant bakery that looked like a giant gingerbread house.
“Here it is, Sugar Cube Corner.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Thanks, I’ll be off, bye!” Nightshade said, trying to get rid of the mare. She would not stop talking about how she’s the fastest flyer and how she wants to join the Wonderbolts.
“Hang on, I want you to meet Pinkie Pie first.” ‘Dang it.’ Nightshade thought. “Yeah, don’t want to miss that.” He said, rolling his eyes, but Rainbow failed to see it. With that, we went into the bakery. Nightshade took in a big breath through his nose. “Ooh, is that shortcake I smell?”
“Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner! Are you new?” Then, out of nowhere, this crazy, pink, bundle of joy leaps into his face. Before Nightshade can even began to form a sentence, she continues on.
“Of course you’re new, I know everypony here, so you know what that means!? I can throw you a party, here have a cupcake.” She said, pushing him towards the door. “Sorry, but you have to go if I’m going to throw you an awesome party! Rainbow Dash, you can help me!” And with that, Nightshade was out the door with a very confused look on his face. Dash was flying above, trying to stop her.
“Wait!” Nightshade said catching the strange mare’s attention. “I need to find my brother! And I need Dash there to help me!”
“Oh, Dusty is at the Golden Oaks Library getting some books, see you at 8!” And she closed the door in his face.
“I didn’t tell her who my brother is, and who the hay was that!” The door opened up again.
“I’m Pinkie Pie!” and with that she closed the door putting a sign that said ‘closed’ on it. Nightshade’s eye twitched a little, trying to process on what happened. ‘I’m going to overload with all this, just let it go.’ He thought, grabbing his wagon he left outside, and after putting his cupcake in the wagon, hooked himself to it. Nightshade started to walk, but then realized one small detail.
He didn’t know where the library is.
Nightshade rubbed his temple in annoyance, thinking what to do. He looked around, trying to find somepony to help him, until he found an orange mare in a Stetson hat. She was selling apples in a little apple cart. She was talking to a white unicorn, with a beautiful purple mane. ‘Maybe they can help me.’ Nightshade thought as he trotted up to them, getting the cowpony’s attention, who smiled at him.
“Well howdy pardner, ain’t seen you round here before, are you new?” She had a very heavy southern drawl. The white mare turned and saw him. “Yes” Nightshade said fixing his glasses. “My names Nightshade, and I’m trying to find the town’s library.” She nodded. “Oh, I know where that is, it’s down the road here, can’t miss it.” She said, nodding down the road. “Names Applejack. I run the apple farm farther down.” I nodded. “Yeah, I saw it up from the hill I came into town from.”
The white mare spoke up. “I can show you where it is if you want.” She said.
Nightshade was a little hesitant on letting this mare show him the way, but he didn’t want to get lost again.
“Alright than, lead the way miss…” Nightshade said.
“Rarity, names Rarity.” She said holding out a hoof to shake Nightshade’s.
“Nice to meet you.” When Nightshade shook Rarity’s hoof, but she whipped it back suddenly.
“Your hoof is freezing!” Nightshade’s calm neutral attitude changed for a second to one of nervousness and worry before he regained it again.
“Sorry, I just got to town from a chilly forest.” Rarity seemed a little skeptical before shrugging it off and turning around to her friend.
“Sorry to cut this short dear, maybe a little later?” Applejack nodded her head. With that Rarity led Nightshade to the local library.
Rarity thought it would be nice to start up a little conversation with the new stallion.
“So mister Nightshade, where are you from?”
“Manehatten.” He said simply. Rarity waited but he said nothing else.
“What brings you to town, visiting someone?”
“Yes.” Still nothing. Rarity decided to drop the it, this pony did not want to talk. While they walked in silence, Rarity’s eyes begin to wander, until it landed on Nightshade’s wagon, a strange thick rod sticking out from under the tarp, having been knocked loose from the tumble down.
“Oh, what’s that?” Rarity said, using her magic to grab it and bring it over. Nightshade quickly grabbed it out of the air with hoof, getting rid of the magic aura surrounding it.
“Whats it with ponies touching my stuff here, it’s annoying.” He said, dusting it off like it was dirty. Rarity mumbled a little sorry.
“So, what is it?” Rarity asked. Nightshade was once again hesitant, showing this mare a piece of one of his works? Unthinkable, but, he hardly gets to show anypony his inventions anymore…
“Here, I’ll show you.” He said and slipped it on, it looked kind of like a piece of armor, but a lot smaller. Nightshade pointed at a small rock on the ground, and the device opened and split into three prongs, all producing a golden glow, and the rock levitated into the air.
Rarity looked unimpressed.
“You’re just levitating it.” Rarity said, not getting it. Nightshade shook his head.
“I’m not using magic.” Rarity’s unimpressed look turned into a shocked looked when the fact dawned on her.
“How does it do that!”
“Well, if I were to explain it fully, it would be sundown when I finish.” Nightshade said, but opened a side panel and it deposited a small cylinder, much like the ones from before.
“But in a nutshell, these power it.” Rarity grabbed it with her magic, trying to look at it closely, but Nightshade took the thing out of the air with his magic, but when he did something odd happened when he grabbed it, some sort of spark happen when his magic aura touched hers. Nightshade’s electric blue aura flickered.
“Please don’t-ah!” Nightshade dropped the cylinder and grabbed at his head and fell to his knees. Rarity ran over to help him.
“NO! Don’t touch me.” But Rarity still helped him up.
“What happened! Did I do something?” Nightshade waved her off his right arm. Rarity yipped and jumped away.
“Not only is your hoof freezing, but your whole arm is dead cold.” He shooked his head.
“I’m FINE! Please, just lead me to the library.” He said getting irritated.
“Are you sure you can keep going? You look pale.” She said.
“I’m gray, and yes I’m fine, and please no physical contact.” Nightshade, calming down a bit. He grabbed his stuff and put them neatly into his wagon, feeling lazy, placing his little cylinder off to the side.
With that, they continued with the walk, Rarity making sure not to make a sound. In a couple of minutes, we arrived at the library.
“Thank you Rarity, farewell.” Nightshade said as he unhooked his wagon.
Before Rarity could say anything, the door opened and a lavender unicorn appeared in the doorway.
“Rarity! What a pleasant surprise!”
Nightshade facehoofed in the background.
“Twilight, how is your day darling?” Rarity asked happily.
“I just finished helping Dusty get some books, he said his brother was visiting, and he loves to read. Maybe we can be friends.” Nightshade flinched in the background, looking in the sky for his pegasus brother, seeming that he spotted him, he quickly went to his wagon and pulled out a large roundish object with a leather strap and slipped it on.
“Oh, how nice, I never knew Dusty had a brother, what’s his name?”
Nightshade was rapidly pushing a red button on the front, but nothing was happening, panic clearly plastered on his face.
“Um, I think it was-” then a loud explosion happened and the spot where Nightshade was, a small crater was, and Nightshade flying through the air, towards a brown pegasus.
“Uh, ok. Rarity, who was that.” Twilight asked, confused on what just happened.
“Um, that was Nightshade, but he’s not a pegasus. What a strange fellow.”Twilight perked up.
“Oh! That must be Dusty’s brother! He told me he’s a scientist, he makes a lot of amazing inventions.” They looked up to see the brothers talking to each other, but they were too far away to tell anything.
“I’m not to fond of him, he was rather short with me, he wouldn’t let me touch him! He fell down seemingly hurt, but he insisted on that he was fine.” Rarity said in a huff. Twilight looked confuse.
“Odd, Dusty made him sound so nice, but his house DID burn down, Dusty said Nightshade was only able to save some of the more important equipment, he may be just really upset.” Twilight said walking over to the wagon Nightshade left behind, who was nowhere in sight anymore, must of went to Dusty’s house. Twilight walked over to Nightshade’s wagon.
“What are you doing, darling?” Rarity asked confused.
“I just want to see what Nightshade makes.” Twilight said, removing a piece of the tarp with her magic to look in inside. In the wagon, there was many different type of machines everywhere inside. Than, out of nowhere, a wild Pinkie appeared.
“Hi Twilight, I’m throwing an awesome party for a new pony in town, and i’m inviting- Ooh whats this?” Pinkie said and grabbing a metal box out of the wagon. On the front it said ‘Memory unit’.
“I wouldn’t touch that, Nightshade might become furious with us.” Rarity warned.
“Oh relax, I won’t break it!.” Pinkie continued to look at the box until it made a small beep sounded.
“ENTER PASSWORD” Said a female computer voice. Twilight stepped up.
“Pinkie, I wouldn’t touch that, there's a reason why-”
“PASSWORD GRANTED”
Pinkie began to hop in excitement. Singing in a sing song voice. “I got it!” Than Pinkie began to look at the box in her hoofs, confused.
“Pinkie, maybe you should-” twilight began, but was cut short when Pinkie shoved the box into her face. On it, it seemed like a catacomb of data, but the labels were all off, they were titled ‘First Steps’ and ‘Best Moments with Dad’. Twilight continued to look through the list next to all the names and titles, it said ‘View’. Twilight scrolled to something that said ‘The Tragedy’.
“Maybe we should put this thing away, we don’t-” Rarity tried to say,but Pinkie stopped her.
“But aren’t you just the itty, bitty, teensy, weensy bit curious of what this is.” Pinkie said, Twilight was still looking. Twilight clicked view next to the ‘Tragedy’.
“A little, but-” Pinkie interrupted her again. “See? It’ll be fun!”
In it, Twilight couldn’t tell what she was seeing, it seemed like she was seeing the perspective of somepony’s else's eyes. Then realization hit her, memories, these must be Nightshades memories, he was able to document what he went through.
“Rarity! Pinkie! This is amazing, look! It’s his memories!” Rarity was hesitant, but came over anyway to see, a look of utmost curiosity.
On the little screen, Nightshade was walking down the streets of Manehatten...
Nightshades POV
“Ah, what a lovely day, oh hello Miss Octavia, nice to see you today!” I said, waving to the cello player, who had the honor to listen to her play, waved back with a smile. I was on my way to my office, well, more like a laboratory, we just developed a new form of energy that should be stable enough to use for normal homes, to make life more pleasant, not that it isn’t. I waved to another pony I know. Odd, by now I should’ve seen my brother by…
Than out of nowhere, a certain brown pegasus tackled me into a hug.
“Dusty! I was worried I was going to miss you before I go to work!”
“No way, I have to see my little bro before he goes to his ‘Macho Job’.” Dusty was a darker brown pegasus with blown back tan hair that seems to be always stuck it he same position, with yellow streaked into it, along with a long messy matching tail, his eyes are a rich chocolate brown. His cutie mark is a tornado.
I rolled my eyes at his comment.
“Yeah, sorry if i’m not a Royal Guard like you, wait! You're not anymore do to…?” I said. His smirk became a frown. Dusty was an ex-Royal Guard.
“Because I thought it would be better if I became a weather pony.” He said.
“Right, so don’t make fun of my job when you push around fluffy clouds all day.” I said, continuing on my way, smirking.
“I buck clouds, not push them!” Dusty said, flying up to me. He may be my big brother and a lot stronger, but I was always the sly slick one. I knew exactly how to get under his skin.
“Aww, did you hurt your wittle wegs in the process?” I said, trying my best not to laugh. Dusty just grunted and rolled his eyes.
“I complain about throwing out my leg ONE DAY!” He said, shaking his head. Thats when I started laughing. We were too close to stay mad at each other.
“If you got the chance, I want to show you something at the lab.” I said nudging him. He nodded. “Can’t today, bro. I got to get a few clouds to take out, if I don’t then they might cause a storm, but I’ll come by later if I can, See ya!” He said taking off. I couldn’t help but smile when he flew off, I enjoy our conversations, no matter how short.
Ten minutes of waving to other ponies, I finally made it to the lab, simple building, only real thing to take note was the lack of windows. I went in and grabbed my keycard and lab coat and left my vest on the hook, and went down the fleet of stairs. At the bottom was a metal door, but with a quick swipe,the keycard opened the door to the room on the other side. It was a two in one room, one side with our new project, the other a blast proof, magic proof, fire proof, everything proof pretty much, all magically enchanted, glass window. This is where you can watch experiments without getting hurt. I walked into the room with our project. It was a large turbine like device with one cable on each side, one to pump in magic, and the other gives out electricity. Through research, me and the other scientists discovered that we can harness electrical energy to use as a source of power, but it can become somewhat unstable, so we use special cables to harness it, and store it into little cylinders, which we can put into any device that once ran on magic. You see, magic drains and doesn’t last long, but electrical energy can make it last 10 times as long, and the cylinders can be replenished with more power.
We are on the edge of a new revolution of science. Right now the machine wasn’t on, it was twice the size of a normal pony. One side, you put in magic into the cable, and the the other side dispenses electricity. Once the others saw me, they all made way. One thing I forget to mention, I invented the machine. So that means i’m in charge. I turn to my robotics technician, Gadget. Close friend. He’s a unicorn with a soft green coat, blue eyes, and yellow neat hair, and similar tail, and his cutie is a little metal box with a antenna with a red button in the middle.
“Is everything ready?” I ask him. He nodded, excited.
“Alright, time for our first official test, no more scale models!” I yelled. Everypony cheered.
A few minutes later, everything was set, and everyone got into place, and I powered my horn, and the pump activated. I was wired into the machine to give it power.
In a few minutes, the first test for a magic converter ever created was working. But before anyone could celebrate, things went wrong, red lights started flashing, and warning sirens went off. Everypony was panicking.
“Status report! I want status reports, what's wrong!”
Gadget ran up. “The output pump! It’s not connected!”
“Well connect it then!” I yelled, the blaring getting louder. He shook his head.
“We can’t, it’s been severed!” When he said that, everyone ran out of the room, even Gadget.
“Hey, wait! I’m still stuck!” I shout, still hooked up to the side of the pump. I disconnected myself, but in order to do that, I had to use magic, which gave the machine more power. It shouldn’t be a problem though, electricity disperse, once thats done, we can fix the pump and cable, I should know, I did the calculations myself. But at the moment, it is still dangerous, it may shoot out electricity, which will still hurt like crazy, if you live. So I trotted up to the door to get out, but to my horror, I saw one of my assistants, Fixin, ripping out the cables for the door panel, which controls the the blast proof door.
“What are you doing?! I need to get out you moron!” He just chuckled. Once I got closer, I saw Gadget tied up, along with two other workers of mine, and stuck on a chair Gadget was trying to get the rope off him with magic, but he couldn’t. What…
A spy!
“I knew something was wrong you! Let me out!” He shook his head, and picked up an intercom speaker.
“Hello, all personnel evacuate, there is a malfunction in the basement do to a miscalculation in Nightshades work, his reactor is overheating.” After that, he hit the alarm button. Fixin picked up a folder, containing my work, looked at me, and stuck a piece of paper to the glass, and ran up the stairs. On the paper, it was my calculations of the generator for the magic output, but it was different, he fixed my calculations. I looked more closely. Given the facts, the reactor on this size, it will result in a…
Giant explosion.
I made a mistake. I look over to the machine, and see that it really is overheating. I looked over to my assistants, seeing that there still tied up. What do i do!? Think!
Than I get it. its a long shot. I look towards Gadget, getting his attention, I point to him, than a hook on a wall, indicating to break the ropes.
He gets it. With help from the others, they hop over to the hook, than using his magic, hoisted themselves up to the hook, which was able to tear the rope, once they were free, they ran up the stairs, except for Gadget, who was yelling at them. So, no one bothers to help me…
Gadget runs over to the door, and tries to fix the door, but it seems to be missing cables, but he kept trying. Even if he was able to fix, we wouldn’t be able to get it open in time before the reactors goes… why is it so hot?
I look behind me to see that the machine is going to blow. We are going to die if that thing goes off, I need a way to get this thing under control, but nothing can stop something with a radius of an explosion this big. Wait.
I look over to the machine, an idea forming in my head. I walk over to the machine, I need to get close to it, I hope those lessons work. I power up my horn, and ready myself. This will at least stop most of the explosion.
I look over at the window to see Gadget looking in, sad. I wave frantically for him to leave, but before that can happen, the device explodes, sending me flying towards the blast proof doors, the last thing I feel is the throbbing pain that was everywhere before my vision goes black.
Normal POV
Twilight and the others faces in complete shock of what just happened.
Rarity recovered first.
“So, is there anymore, how did he survive such a nasty explosion?” Twilight looked, but there doesn’t to be seem to be anymore after that.
“There isn’t any more.” Twilight said, shocked. They all look at each other, now scared.
Nightshade is dead.
Author's Note
Alright! Hope you like cliffhangers! Notebook Scribble here, or known as partypony32, this is my first story, I hope you really like it! Let me know in the comments! For the good or the worse!
