With summer in sight, many of the students of Canterlot High School Academy were growing restless. For many of them this would be their last year in school, however all of them would say their goodbyes to the old school. The facility was to be demolished after the end of the school year so that a new one may be built in its place. Canterlot High had hosted almost 20 generations of ponies, and Principal Angel Heart wanted to synchronize the end of year ceremony with the official shutdown of the school.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The halls of the great school were filled with a happy commotion. The end of the year meant the start of summer, and wonderful new opportunities bloomed for those that graduated. Many of them were now discussing their potential careers. Among them, a unicorn and earth pony stallion were talking vigorously.
“So, I’m thinking about submitting my papers for bootcamp by the end of this moon. What about you, Shining?”
Shining Armor shook his head, bringing himself back from his daydreaming. Before he had the chance to speak, the blue stallion with the fire-colored mane that was talking to him smiled and started laughing. Shining laughed as well, figuring it looked even weirder that he was looking at his friend’s cutie mark: a twelve point golden star with a round ruby inside.
“Did little Shiny get hit too much by the heat, or has the nice princess stolen his mind as well as his heart?” The stallion nudged him with a sly smile. Shining laughed awkwardly, rubbing his neck.
“Guess I’ve got a lot on my mind, you know? This bag ain’t doing me good either,” he said, fixing his backpack on his neck, trying to avoid the ‘Cadence’ subject. “ Anyway... aiming for the Royal Guard is gonna be hard. It might be years until we manage to earn a spot there even if we’re good at our job.” He sighed, shrugging. The prospect of the difficulty was not a pleasant one.
“I’m not like you, Terra. I mean, you’ve got your mom and dad to ask for advice, them being veterans of the guard and all. I gotta—”
“Woah, woah, woah, hey…” Terra Lionmane raised his free hoof, interrupting his friend. “Don’t think I’ve got it easier than you. My parents may be former guards, but they agreed not to send any recommendation letters, so I can prove my worth as a knight guard on my own. I mean, I want to prove my worth, but that’s not to say I asked for the added difficulty. Don’t worry, we’re gonna make it!”
Shining Armor smiled at the encouraging words, and just as he took a deep breath, the last bell of the year rang. He looked at Terra and the stallion’s smile soon mirrored his own. There was no reason to be afraid of the future, the only thing one could do was face it with determination and courage.
“Well, I’m gonna see you at the ceremony after class, I hope.” Terra said, and Shining nodded in response. Terra approached his locker after having dodged some of the rushing ponies in the hallway.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!”
Terra raised his head only to see the source of the commotion was two unicorn mares. One of them, a blonde mare with white coat, had almost bumped into another that had a maroon mane. Terra noticed the latter had a black coat with stripe-like formations, realizing why the unicorn mare was being called a zebra. Noticing she had a black eye with a white outline as a cutie mark he realized it was one of his classmates Selune Darkeye.
“I’m sorry, jeez! Relax.” Selune mumbled something under her breath. She didn’t want to be the one to pursue the issue further. After all, she kept her eyes open, unlike the mare in front of her.
-KRREEEBAM-
Terra closed his locker, abruptly making the metal door’s hinges creak as it slammed shut. This reminded the two mares that they weren’t alone, and it seemed like the blonde mare didn’t want to lose time going to her class.
“Ugh… Damn zebra,” the blonde mare said, strutting away. After she left their sight, Selune shook her head as she approached Terra as he was adjusting his backpack.
“Thanks… Terra, right? Sorry, I’m not that good with names.” She hesitantly extended her hoof towards the stallion, not knowing how to handle the situation. They exchanged a hoofshake as Terra smiled. He turned his head towards the direction that the other mare had disappeared.
“Terra Lionmane, you’re Selune Darkeye, right? What happened back there?” he asked, raising his eyebrow. She waved her hoof dismissively.
“Oh, nothing serious, really. You know how absent minded some girls are, I could have been in her place telling her that she didn’t look properly. Or…” The mare put a hoof on her mouth, giggling. “how I must have poked her face with my horn. Regardless, I don’t mind her comments much.”
“Oh?”
“You know.” She winked, her purple eyes gleaming as she smiled. “I just happened to see how she was fawning over the zebras in ‘Canterpolitan’. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was into me.” Terra couldn’t resist and burst into laughter. It was probably all true, which made it all the funnier.
“Besides, if I had a bit for every time I got called a Zebra, I’d be able to buy a house.”
“I guess you’re right. We’ve all got our weird sides,” Terra responded thinking that, in retrospect, his knightly aspirations might seem too cheesy to some.
~roooorgrrr~
Terra’s ears perked up as his legs tensed.
“What’s wrong? Come on, we’re gonna be late for class.” As Selune turned around, she was jerked back by the hoof as Terra stood firmly in place, his red eyes staring intently in the empty hallway.
“Something’s wrong…” Terra said. He didn’t know what, but his hooves were telling him so; his earth pony nature was calling to him, and all he knew was that he had to listen.
Selune watched as Terra closed his eyes, lowering his head and occasionally tapping the floor. The way he stood still, focused with his eyes closed tight, what was he looking for? Was he hearing something she wasn’t? The earth pony before her was serious, that much was certain, and this worried her.
“What’s wrong? Terra? Say something, you’re scaring me here…”
But Selune’s words were a drop in the ocean; an ocean that stirred in the distance. The low pitched rumble that had supposedly gone was still there. A torrent of energy was building up, ready to sweep them away in its destructive wake.
Terra’s eyes shot wide open as the realization came to his mind, but before he had a chance to speak, he heard it: the rattling of the windows and the lockers intensified as the lamps of the hallways shook left and right.
“What in Tartaurus?” Loud cracks echoed throughout the hallway as the cement split apart, threatening to collapse the roof.
“It’s an earthquake! We’ve got to get out of here!” Terra grabbed Selune’s hoof, inevitably making her blush as they looked for an exit.
~KAKRRRRRRAKABAM!~
The two of them yelped as part of the roof ahead collapsed, creating a cloud of dust.
“Now what?!” Terra said, looking left and right in frustration. He realized that the pillars in the center of the academy must have collapsed. There was no escape out of the central hallways.
“Over there!” Terra turned to Selune, pointing at a door on the right of the corridor, which read ‘CLEANING PERSONNEL ONLY’. “EEEP!” Selune yelped as she was yanked towards it, but as she swung the handle, the door didn’t budge.
“Stand back!” Selune turned just in time to avoid the earth pony headbutting the door off its hinges. Selune yelped once again as she dodged the debris. As the tremors went on, the debris continued falling from the hallway and inside the room. She heard a pained scream as darkness settled in the room.
Trapped, no light bulb shone now, no ray of sun or moon could pierce the debris and reach her… She was falling down the black spiral of darkness, looking down the bottomless abyss. Selune stared down the emptiness and saw that she wasn’t alone. Down in the black heart of the void something was staring back at her. A small, white coated filly with maroon hair just like her own, bearing no cutie mark. The little pony slowly turned around, her eyes just an endless blackness, hollow, devoid of life and emotion.
“What’s wrong?” the little filly asked, “Selune?” The double-layered voice scared her. She stepped back, hooves trembling as the filly approached with a wicked, toothy smile. Red slits emerged from her eyes as stared back at Selune.
“Come back, Selune…” The filly giggled, grabbing her shoulders as her eyes staring deeper and deeper into her. “Come back… come back… COME BACK!” The filly shook her as her voice rose each time she called her, shaking the world with her.
She was slapped. “What the?” she said, but then she was slapped again, the world shook and shattered each time she felt pain. “Stop!” She yelled, and the pain didn’t come again. Strange, why would she st… No. This wasn’t real. She rubbed her eyes, two gleaming red eyes were looking at her from inside the darkness.
“Selune?” She heard a male voice and realized that it was Terra speaking all along.
“Terra, your…”
“Batpony father, can't see much in pitch black darkness though. What happened to you? You were mumbling something incomprehensible, and you weren’t responding. I thought you had hit your head or something.” Selune couldn’t see Terra’s face clearly, but she knew by the tone of his voice he was worried. His voice had brought her back from that terrible darkness, and to hear it was a blessing. His eyes reflecting what little light out there was enough for her, fortunately the worst had passed.
“Selune?” Terra felt a sharp pain in his left hoof as Selune hugged him. He removed his hoof, and patted her with the right on the shoulder. “Shhh… there there…” He felt tears streak down his neck and a low voice saying ‘thank you’ over and over again. It was reasonable to feel afraid in such a situation, and though he expected gratitude, this was a bit much.
“You’ve no idea how thankful I am you’re here.” He heard her sniffle as she let him go. He searched her eyes and wiped them clean with his hoof.
“Feel better? What was that about?” he asked, but received only one word as an answer.
“Light. Bring me some light, anything. I can’t focus in this darkness. Please…”
Light? Terra thought. Was this why she was trembling before? Was she so afraid of the dark?
“Please…” Selune’s voice was low, an honest plea for help. She wanted light, and she had to have it now.
“Right. Just hold on, okay?” Terra took the mare’s silence as a ‘yes’ and began searching around. Despite his eyes, it was hard with all the darkness, but fortunately earth tapping, a trick he learned from his earth pony mother, proved some help. He scoured the surroundings, and on reaching drawers of the office he found what he was looking for: a flashlight. Flicking it open he grabbed it with his mouth and searched the darkness. Once the light fell on Selune, he saw the mare with her hooves in front of her mouth, mumbling something in a praying manner.
Once Selune felt the heat of the light on her she opened her eyes, and in the short moment it took her vision to adjust the small flashlight was the glory of the moon, and the pony behind it was as grand as the princess of the night herself.
“You alright? You had me worried back there. Care to tell me what happened to you?” Terra said. Selune motioned him towards the corner and they both sat with the flashlight poised over a chair to illuminate them both.
“This is a fear I had with me from early on. Though it’s not as bad as then, I was always afraid of the dark. Always.” She buried her face in shame between her hooves. “Sorry, we’ve got the earthquake to deal with, and I…”
“Rescue is going to take some time. In the meantime, someone needs me to listen to her, and I won’t back down.”
Selune smiled at Terra’s words. She wiped her watered eyes. “That means a lot to me, you know? You know when I said I have this fear from early on, I meant before I got my cutie mark—since birth.” Selune sighed and began her story...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pacing up and down the white hallways of Manehatten memorial hospital was a stallion with dark blue coat. The colors of his mane were white and black, just like the buttons of a piano, which were also his cutie mark.
“Azure Melody?”
Once the stallion heard the name, he jerked his head towards the nurse and approached the tan-coated blonde mare. She didn’t smile; she didn’t frown either. It was the emotionless expression that could mean only one thing.
“Your daughter is fine. A beautiful young filly,”
“Oh, thank god...” the earth pony sighed, sweeping his sweaty forehead.
“But there have been complications with her eyes.” Azure didn’t wait to hear more. Trotting quickly past her and to her wife’s chamber, he burst in through the door. Spotting a light green-coated unicorn mare with golden mane. Her cutie mark was a golden outline of an eye-glyph. Above her white covers and between her hooves was a white unicorn filly with a maroon mane.
“Lumina?” Lumina Oculus wasn’t smiling, nor were the doctors that rushed in after him. There was an awkward silence among everypony that was only interrupted by the occasional noise his wife’s snout made as it rubbed on their daughter’s face.
With a hesitant hoof, Azure tried to pry the filly from his wife long enough to see her. It worried him beyond measure that he hadn’t heard the little filly cry. Weren’t newborns supposed to cry when they were born to help them breathe? Maybe he had missed that, but still, what the nurse had told him about her eyes wasn’t a joke—he was sure of it. Lumina allowed her husband to take their daughter, as her glassy, blind eyes watered. Once he looked at his daughter’s eyes, he realized exactly what was wrong with her.
Her eyes were completely black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Black?” Back in Canterlot High Academy, Terra’s curiosity got the better of him as he interrupted Selune’s storytelling. “I’ve never heard of something like that happen before.” Not to mention that her coat being different than when she was born was no mere oddity either. He had heard of skin conditions affecting ponies, resulting in them going albino, or taking a lighter tint in their coats, not to mention that some of them even went as far to purposely change their coat color for cosmetic reasons. So changing coat colors wasn’t entirely unheard of.
“Mortuus magicae, meaning Dead Magic. Many unicorn lineages bear gifts of a specific category. Some have great potential in magic, some specialize in elemental magic. My lineage was one gifted with magic related to sight. My mother, though blind, had the ability to take glimpses into the future. My magic, however, hadn’t awakened upon my birth, and it was gathering slowly and steadily upon my eyes.” Pausing, she took a deep breath before continuing, “but it wouldn’t just stay there.”
“What do you mean?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Azure and Lumina had tried everything, but the doctors didn’t have a clear solution. Despite the honest attempts from the doctors to find a way there was no visible result. In fact, things were getting worse.
Day by day, the loving couple watched as the little filly’s coat turned as black as her eyes. Her beautiful, white coat was marred by the black magic of her eyes spreading like an infection. Their daughter trembled as the darkness around her eyes didn’t subside. Always seeking her parents she begged, cried, and wiggled her little hooves as hard as she could, wanting the shadows to go away. There was little her parents could do but hope the future of their daughter was brighter than it looked.
One day, Lumina dreamt of the sun and moon converging together, but instead of crashing or covering one another, they united in one. Wherever they shone, the land flourished, and whatever animal bathed in its light was cured. The land slowly changed wherever the light fell, until Lumina woke up.
Her dreams were always riddles, highly symbolic in their nature. Vague and mysterious, enchanting tales and images that spoke of the secrets of the universe. This time was no different because this was no simple dream, this was a sign from the future, the key to saving their daughter.
Over the next day, Azure and Lumina brainstormed to its meaning, until they realized.: An eclipse was recognized as a bad omen throughout all of Equestria, but there was one phenomenon few had witnessed. In the poles of the world where the solar wind pierced the gaps of Equus’s magnetosphere one event drew ponies from around the globe.
The Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Astralis.
…
Northern Equestria. The spine of the world was once filled with life: rumors spoke of a legendary city of light where the ‘White Plains’ were located. Treading the treacherous fields of white, two ponies steadily made their way up north.
The snowstorm was relentless. Battering them from every side it attempted to sway them away from their goal, and into the promise of the white plains of oblivion. The two ponies huddled together for warmth, but the heat of their hearts came in the form of the infant strapped around the mother’s neck beneath her clothing. So long as they had that, they wouldn’t give up, they would continue.
Lumina could feel the baby’s fear as it huddled near her. This was no simple blindness like her own, her daughter’s magic was a cloud, suffocating her as she tried to pierce it. She could feel it by the way she clung to her, how she searched the sound of her voice each time she whispered her a lullaby.
Azure wasn’t going back either. Putting his piano career on hold was one of many moves he did to stand by the mares of his life. This would inevitably hurt him, and put the great soloist’s tour around Equestria on hold, but money or career meant nothing now. The only way he looked was forward.…
Forward to the north, forward to the spine of the world, forward where sun and moon combined their greatness, their light. As the night settled down they found themselves a small cave oin the edges of the white plains to settle down for the night.
They had to be close.
As the night came the fury of the snowstorm receded, giving the family some respite from the elements. “It’s going to get dark soon…” came Azure’s voice as he gathered the firewood together to light a fire.
“We’re close, we just need to hold on a bit longer” said Lumina. They both wanted to believe it, more than anything in the world. There wasn’t much time for their daughter after all, Lumina could feel it and the filly’s pulse wasn’t doing good either. Not to mention that it was hard enough to carry her so far away.
The mysterious veil of the night spread overn the sky, the promise of mystical and enchanting encounters lay in the canvas that was being painted once more. One more night descended onto Equestria: its stars guides for the lost and the adventurous, the thief and guardian, the good and the evil.
Jealous, the sun blew upon the night, trying to reach the far corners of night’s domain with its essence. Not to harm the night, but embrace the beauty that slept away from its luminous rays. Night and Day extended their hooves up into Equus’s sky and where they touched a new light was born. Azure saw their auras join in together in a marvelous united glow of green and pink, but also red, yellow, green, blue and violet at times. The full moon’s light shone behind the borealis that danced around it, a royal robe complementing its presence.
Though Lumina couldn’t see, the light show in the sky didn’t escape her senses. She could feel the magic coursing through the air, the mana flowing through the sky. She could feel the magic more than she could see it and she felt drawn to it like a magnet. The sensation felt like she was in utopia, drinking ambrosia while laying atop feathers.
Lumina gasped, the realization hitting her square in the face. “That’s it!”
Turning his head towards his wife, Azure looked as she took her daughter’s straps and placed the makeshift sling down in the snow and under the grand spectacle of light. His eyes shot wide open, Is this it? he thought, raising his head to the sky once more, only to see one of the moon’s rays reflecting upon the light of the borealis. For a moment the combined light blinded him, but as the flash of white faded…
Laughter. Joyous, shrill and full. It was a sound no instrument could replicate, no singer duplicate. The sound of life beating happily echoed in the mouths of the happy couple as the luminous sky reflected in their daughter’s purple eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Selune stopped, pulling her fallen backpack out of the dark and focusing on Equestria’s moon drawn on the side, complete with the figure of the legendary Mare in the Moon, the outline decorated with glitterdust.
“The first image I remember seeing is the moon’s surface, and the legend ‘carved’ on its surface,” she paused closing her eyes for a moment, “the moon, and by extension the mare, are what saved me.”
“Isn't she supposed to be evil?” Scratching his head, Terra wondered if there was a struggle for control in the thousand year imprisonment of the princess of the night.
“Maybe, maybe not. The legend says she was jealous that's for sure, but something told me that day there was something more to the legend than I knew. I didn’t know what, but I believed, and some called me a fool for questioning the identity of the ‘Mare in the Moon’. Or maybe I’m just romanticizing it on top of what my mom told me...” she shrugged, letting the backpack down. Terra was speechless.
“So now you know. This isn’t something I am merely paranoid about, but you don’t need to worry. As frightening as the dark might be, it’s also compelling.”
“Compelling? What do you mean?” Terra asked, raising his eyebrow.
“Darkness represents the unknown. We fear the unknown, but as seekers of knowledge we need to be brave enough to tread through it. With sharp minds, bright smiles, and brave spirits we illuminate the world around us. That’s why I didn’t hold a grudge on that mare before, why I took the situation lightly and smiled. When I was young, I realized that to beat that fear I had to look it in the eyes, so after my mom taught me some of the tricks of divination, I delved into the magic of illusions. It was then that I earned my cutie mark, and realized that despite my fear of darkness and the unknown, it was meant for me to look into both,” gently she took his right hoof and brought it closer, “Even though at times I need some help when I’m overwhelmed.” As her smile lit up in the darkness, it started to mirror his own.
“Anyone here? Hello? We’re on our way just you wait!” Trying to lift himself up, Terra felt a sharp pain on his left hoof. He knew he’d hit it before, but this time the pain was unbearable. The voice was coming from the debris outside, and time after time he heard large parts that had fallen being moved and falling. Someone was making their way inside, and among them Terra heard his friend, Shining.
“Woah slow down there, Terra. Jeez, did you break it?” Selune tried to move his hoof a bit, but he winced hard, gritting his teeth from the pain “Yep… broken. You must have had an adrenaline rush. Just hang on help is coming!”
A huge cloud of dust formed and light permeated the room as the last boulder was lifted, leaving everyone coughing.
“Terra! You alright?”
“Gah, leave us to work boy! I swear your magic is more trouble than it’s worth. Cheesy knight in shining armor my flank.”
“Over here! My friend’s got a broken hoof!” With quick and steady movements the rescue team spread a stretcher and placed him on it. With steady moves he was carried outside. Though Terra’s hoof hurt he did his best not to worry the ponies around him by overreacting to his pain. He turned left and saw Shining and Selune standing beside him.
“Shouldn’t you be with Cadence or something?” He asked jokingly.
“She’s fine. The main hallways had the most damage. Luckily, we only have injured as far as I know,” he said as he and Selune followed the paramedics to the ambulance, “Guess those earthquake drills paid off after all.”
“Yeah, pity I’m not gonna be joining you in boot camp anytime soon, right? That’s okay,” he sighed a bit, “Now if that’s alright with you, I’m gonna nap,” he said closing his eyes and falling asleep instantly.
Selune’s stomach fell. To think that saving her had hurt his dreams; she hadn’t wanted this.
“Hey…” Shining had noticed her lowered head. Not knowing what to do with the pony beside him, he extended a hoof. “Name’s Shining Armor. You a friend of Terra?”
“Selune Darkeye,” she responded, shaking it, “Yeah. Sorry I got your friend in trouble.”
“Oh don’t fret, things like that can happen. Besides, he’s only gonna be recovering a few months. Not like you took a lot of his life.” Shining patted her shoulder to comfort her, and seeing as she smiled that seemed to work.
“Still, he stood by me in a time of need…” Shining smiled at her, “... and helped me when I was scared.”
“Sorry, what was that?”
“Nothing, nothing. I was just thinking how ironic it was for someone named ‘Terra’ like the earth to be bested by earth.”
Selune smiled to re-assure Shining that everything was fine. Regardless, she was going to stand by to comfort him.
Just like he did.
Author's Note
This fic had a more "friendly" approach between the two characters to the point that my editor Kildeez said. "When are they gonna do the do?" And in the end it originally said "Because that's what friends are for." and he was all sarcastic and stuff.
But I realized he had a point.
To be honest I'm not too keen on shipping these two characters together. I'm one of the guys that considers their ocs sorta his children and that would be... fictional incest? I DON'T KNOW! Just not too keen on that. Regardless however who am I to deny shipping fuel?
Besides if pairing them together as a couple does serve a purpose I will do it.
