Pages from Another Equestria

Chapters

Chapter One - Midnight
01 - Crystal Prep
02 - Open Gate

Chapter One - Midnight

The monitor was beeping, keeping track of the heart of the man on the bed and its beep echoed across the hall; the reason of why the man, or better said, young boy, was in the bed was all due to a car, at least that’s what they thought, but Dr. Hope wasn’t quite sure. Over and over again she took a look at the resonance images and was perplexed; there were no broken bones, no internal bleeding, the boy didn’t even need any respiratory assistance, he was just healing by himself; outside of the external injuries there was no way to explain why the boy was on a coma.

As she kept looking at the studies, a man of pale skin entered the room in silence and quietly hugged her from behind.

“You do realize that this kid is not your only patient, right Hope? You have already seen others like this, you need to rest, just give it time,” at these words, Hope turned around and looked at him with tired eyes; the man could see the disappointment in those dark and beautiful eyes of her, but it was disappointment in herself.

“I know Sombra, I know, is just… this kid shouldn’t even be alive, now, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that he survived, but seriously, being run down by a trailer and he just receives minor injuries? This doesn’t add up,” she got up and walked to the window of the room, she then once more looked at the file, thinking about the other thing that was so perplexing about the patient; the kid was a ghost.

He had no name, his fingerprints were useless since they couldn’t be found in the database, and with no id and no license in his pockets the boy was a ghost. Without anything under his name or even a name, the system could just very well shrug its shoulders and Hope wasn’t sure what could happen to the boy.

“I suppose we can only wait, have some patience.”

“Don’t you have a class to teach back at High School Sombra?”

“Why do you always have to bring me down woman?” If anyone would see them or the way they interacted with each other they wouldn’t think that they were together, hell, they would have thought they were old friends. Their relationship was a strange one, but it worked for them.

With a small smile on her face, largely due to her teasing, Hope went back to the young boy’s bed and put a hand on top of his head and at that moment, her smile grew even bigger as an idea crossed her mind and just by looking at that smile, it made Sombra get worried.

“I know that look Hope, what exactly are you planning?”

“Don’t you think he looks a little bit like you?”

“What, do you think he is my long lost son Hope?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, is just that it would be a shame if he falls through the system,” at those words, Sombra rolled his eyes knowing exactly what was going on with Hope; she always had such a big heart, always being worried about every single person that she saw in the hospital; she had the kid on her sight and she was not going to let him be abandoned and she was not going to rest until the kid was whole again and with a family.

Sombra knew that he was not going to make her change her mind so he just kissed the top of her head and turned around to leave the room.

“Guess I’ll have to make some calls if we are going to have extra rooms in the house, isn’t it?” Hope was surprised and it was clear on her face that she wasn’t expecting that answer “I know you well my dear and there is no way I’m going to make you change your mind, but you need to promise me one thing, take a rest, you are working too hard, you need to take care of yourself.”

Hope was an amazing doctor, but she always worked way too hard, but Sombra was right, no matter how much she wanted to help everyone all the time; she looked at her body and had to be sincere and acknowledge the fact that she had lost weight due to how much time she had spent being stressed or working.

“Alright, I’ll go back home after the night shift and I’ll finally take a vacation, since I believe I’ve saved enough for several months.”

So it was with these thoughts that as she was working on her desk, looking at some files when one of the nurses working the night shift too appeared at her door.

“Dr. Hope, the patient woke up!” it was all that she needed to hear as she went up and began to run in the direction of the young man’s room; knowing that the next few moments would be important for the patient and indeed, he could act disoriented or confused, maybe even a little shocked, but instead of that they found the boy sitting up on his bed, inspecting his hands with a look that could haunt her night. It was filled with rage and confusion, it was like looking at a pool filled with nightmares and she was paralyzed by the spectacle; the boy then turned his head took at them and it was as if the room had disappeared and the only thing remaining was darkness and rage. Then, he talked and everything went back to normal.

“Where am I?” she blinked and the sensation of nightmares was vanished; she took a long look at him and was confused, weren’t his eyes green before? Now they were grey so there was something strange in all of this.

“You are right now in the hospital after being hit by a truck, do you remember the accident?”

“What’s a truck? Wait, that huge thing is called a truck?” well, things were definitely worse than she thought at first; he was either showing signs of amnesia or he just didn’t know modern vehicles “it doesn’t matter, I need to go back to Everfree, my friends were there, I need to check if everything is alright?”

“You mean Camp Everfree? That’s pretty far away from here.”

“Wait, Camp Everfree?” he showed confusion on his eyes and as interesting the talk was, Hope knew there were more important stuff to talk about, like the fact the kid still was a ghost on the system.

“Now, I know you must feel confused, but tell me, do you remember your name?”

“Yes, is Midnight Shade, who are you?”

“I am Doctor Radiant Hope, I’ve been taking care of you since your accident,” the kid was grateful about it at least and after taking his vitals, which only made him look even more confused due to the strange items she was using -which only made her believe more in the fact that he had lost most of his memories- she decided to left him rest while she did a quick investigation on his name.

Sadly, after introducing his name in the database there was nothing, no records, no family, no nothing; the only thing she could find was a small link in the internet referring to the name after she avoided the fairy tales or trash. It was a link to an old reference, a registry about a so called mage that had studied alchemy and magic; feeling intrigued she clicked on the link to an old portrait and couldn’t quite believe how similar the crazy magician was to the young boy on the hospital bed; the same dark look and hair, just a little bit older. Besides the looks, the name matched completely, Midnight Shade, alchemist of the fourteen hundreds, executed after presumably destroying a whole castle. Nothing was explained except for his last words.

“I had to find a way to kill him, but nothing can stop Noche,” it was probably a wrong translation and didn’t have much sense, who was Noche after all? It didn’t have much sense, so it was with these word sin her head that she went back home. Next morning there was a social worker in the hospital and even Radiant Hope was surprised in how fast they worked.

As she saw the woman she could only thing of one thing; that the kid was going to be separated from her, taken away by the system like many kids before him; he would soon disappear in the system of adoptive houses and temporal families and the kid needed help with his memory loss. Still, she was a doctor first in the hospital so she walked in her direction and shook hands with her.

“Dr. Hope, it is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Cherry Mystic and I am here to ask you a couple of things about your patient,” the woman seemed pleasant enough, with short black hair and very chic glasses; with a beauty mark on her left cheek close to her lips, beautiful smile and the modest, but very flattering suit, Cherry was enchanting and Radiant needed a second to get her mind working at full power again, after all, she looked almost inhuman in a way, but radiant couldn’t put her finger exactly on why.

“What I can tell you is that he has not fully recovered.”

“I still cannot allow you to take him into the system like that,” at those words, Cherry smiled in a way that made Radiant stay rooted to the place she was standing; it felt as if she was in front of a very dangerous predator and the shark was starting to circle around her.

“I heard some people talking this morning, something about you finally taking a very well deserved vacation, is that right? Well, since you are going to take some time for yourself, why don’t you also keep an eye on the kid? I mean, the boy has just woken from such a horrible accident, he probably needs people that could take care of him at this point in his life.”

“I haven’t told the hospital about me taking my vacation, who-”

“You know how rumor works, don’t worry, besides, I’ll have the kid’s documents ready this afternoon,” the woman said with that same mysterious smile of hers that just made Radiant be worried, very, very worried. Radiant still had the feeling that there was something about that woman, this Cherry Mystic that just made her feel fascinated and scared of the woman; it was not the way she looked, it was just something on her head that told her there was something strange on Cherry.

“But the kid is still a ghost; he has no id or any kind of documentation.”

“Now, don’t worry about that, finding all that is my job, you keep taking care of him and soon everything will be alright,” and with that, the woman turned around and walked away, with Radiant feeling as if she had dealt with a natural force instead of a person and the woman truly did it. Just several hours later, Cherry Mystic came back as Radiant visited Midnight once more; she was surprised about the way in which the boy absorbed information.

Cherry came back and with a full folder, with information of Midnight, like his birthday, his mother’s information, which was Moonlight by the way, but his birth place was unknown, the same as his father. Besides all this, with the information and with social worker on her side, that meant that Midnight left the hospital and moved with Sombra and Radiant Hope.
Just as she thought, the two of them quickly became friends, talking for hours and becoming something like a family, but there was still something dark growing inside Midnight, a part of him that made him part of the darkest race in all of Equestria’s history, the Umbrum.

Even in this new world, he felt the dark power in him calling him; make him remember his father and all that he represented. As he had been thrown into another universe, then that meant that his father, Noche, was still out there, somewhere else, but how to find him? How to make true on his promise to him? That he will be the one that will destroy him?

As he started to plan, Radiant came with some news to him, the fact that he will be attending school, not too far away from their house, a school named Crystal Prep. And like that, the wheels of destiny turns, sometimes with help of some very powerful entities that make sure the pieces are in place.

Back then, when Midnight was still on a bed at the hospital, the social worker left the building and with nobody around, her clothes began to shift, then transform; instead of a rather modest suit, it became a rather impressive silver armor, her glasses became a masquerade and like that, Cherry Mystic had vanished and Madeleine was already making plans.

The first piece on the war against Noche and the survival of the multiverse was in place, now, the all had to see what will Midnight do and if he will be like his father or he will embrace the powers of the Elements and help them soon, if not, well, her new spear was ready, she could see if it worked against Umbrum, or at least, Umbrum turned human.

01 - Crystal Prep

Every night the same nightmare, the same dream that haunted his nights; the same images in his head, showing erratic and fleeting images; a spectacle of destruction and chaos, showing what seemed like pieces of crystal slamming against each other on the void, like a sea filled with fragmentes, shattering apart at each impact. Reflecting on its sides he could see his friends, lost like him among the multitude of worlds, trying to solve a problem without solution.

In the dream, in front of him, he could see a shadow that grew every second, encompassing eternity with its power, smiling down on him and mocking him at every turn, enjoying the spectacle around him. And like that, Midnight woke up on his bed, his head filled with images of his father and his bangs stuck to his forehead due to sweat.

“The nightmare again?” Sombra asked him on the threshold of Midnight’s new room “wanna talk about it?” the young man looked at his foster parent with trepidation, remembering the image of Sombra blowing up in pieces due to an unknown force, but he simply shook his head in a negative

“You’ll be fine, I know that when you enter school you won’t have enough time to worry about your past,” the stoic man said trying to make a joke “besides, Crystal Prep is one of the best schools in the area, I should know, I studied there before and now work there.”

“Sombra,” a voice behind him interrupted the two; Hope looked calm, with a radiant beauty that had been restored thanks to the vacations that she so deserved “You both need to rest since tomorrow is the new school year and you both are going to need all your energy to survive it,” the three laughed at Hope’s humor, or at least Shadow laughed quietly while Midnight softly smiled; Hope was a natural caretaker and midnight was grateful for her efforts in trying to get him used to living with them

Once again, Midnight was left alone on his room, contemplating the less dark sky due to how close sunrise was according to the clock on Midnight’s new desk. Sadly, he couldn’t find rest for tonight, knowing that his true father, Noche, was still free out there, after all, if Midnight and the rest of his friends had survived then it wasn’t a stretch to believe someone as dangerous as Noche could survive falling into another world.

Midnight had to be sincere with himself and confess that no matter how much he enjoyed living with Radiant Hope and Sombra, he had to complete what he had promised that night and finally put a stop to Noche’s plans of conquering everything; sadly, he was stuck in a world with absolutely no magic and will have to find a way to replicate the powers he once had as a pony. He needed resources and information for that kind of thing and if radiant and Sombra were correct, then Crystal Prep would be the perfect first step on his plan.

In the previous months, that same social worker, the so called Cherry Mystic, arrived at their house at the same hour, sometimes by herself, a couple of those accompanied by a co-worker, a woman as mysterious and disconcerting as Cherry Herself. Miss Feather Pen had long hair and she looked at Midnight as if she was capable of looking right through him; she had also interviewed him, but unlike Cherry, she was more thorough and Midnight had the suspicion that she knew more about him than she let on originally; whatever the case, Midnight always answered in the same way, that he couldn’t remember except his name. In their last visit, before he went to Crystal Prep for the first time, Feather arrived with a package for Midnight; that was the last time he saw her.

Inside, the only thing was a book filled with photographs, all people that he didn’t recognize; it apparently was a yearbook, with some miscellaneous information about the students.

“Sombra, what’s this?” the other dark haired man in the house took a look at what Midnight was pointing at and he saw five young girls standing in front of a horse statue, he then smirked knowing exactly what the place was.

“Oh, that will be Canterlot High, a high school in the suburbs, nothing impressive, they always lose to us.”

“Sombra,” the voice of Hope was the one of someone who had listened to something way too many times.

“What do you mean by always losing?”

“Every so often there is a special event called The Friendship Games between the two schools, something of a two school academic Olympics in a way,” Midnight smiled a bit at the name, of how ironic it was considering that most events with two different sides on them were all but friendly. Looking at it a little bit more he noticed several more students, especially one with fluffy pink hair; she remained him of Jade a bit. Among the students he also noticed a girl with fiery red and golden hair, but he didn’t put a lot of attention to it.

“I don’t understand why Feather gave me this book, it is worthless” he put the book aside, without noticing that a note felt from the book, it then floated outside of the window, its message never known by Midnight.

So it was like this that Midnight’s first day at Crystal prep was… bizarre to say the same; his uniform was uncomfortable and he didn’t like the monotony of students that, even with huge differences in hair color and style, they seemed as if they were out of one of those assembly line factories he had read about in the last few months. Students of the school were as blind to others as many nobles back on the Crystal Empire.

Still, with all the greed and jealousy thriving in the halls of Crystal Prep, Midnight found someone wearing glasses and with black hair that made him think back on his good friend, Whisper; with that on his mind, he got close to her to start a conversation.

“Is like an anthill, isn’t it?” the girl turned around, completely surprised by hearing someone talk to her, her face turned red, both in shyness and not quite believing someone like the boy in front of her will start a conversation with her.

“Yes, although, I think ants are better organized than this, but I understand the comparison” a simple yes would have been alright, even acceptable since they didn’t know each other; Midnight liked that, but then, the girl’s bag moved “ah, sorry, I need to go,” she said and she basically ran away much to Midnight’s surprise.

“I suppose that when you gotta go, you gotta go,” the speaker on the wall then was brought to life, with a message to Midnight to go to the office, in there, he found a woman with beautiful, long, pink hair that reminded Midnight of the old queen of the Crystal Kingdom; he tried to dissipate that memory, knowing full well that she must be dead since she had been one of Noche’s ‘guest’.

Her name was Cadence and she was the dean of the school and after seeing the principal of the school he understood that he will like the dean more than the bespectacled woman at the other side of the desk.

Principal Cinch asked him to sit down and Midnight was on edge due to how the office felt oppressive, with the curtains closed and shadows playing around the walls; Midnight had started to hate shadows.

“Welcome to our school Mister Midnight, I must say that we are surprised that you not only scored well on the entrance exam, but that you aced it; in fact, only another student in the school has a higher score. That’s not the only reason why you were accepted, after all, that two of our own alumni were ready with letters of recommendation; it is truly a special occasion,” Midnight just watched her in silence, intrigued, but not really interested in her, he just listened “how a man that until six months ago was basically death could have a development this impressive? Who are you’ Do you want to sabotage this school?” Even if the movements of the principal were of a woman with power and of someone that ruled with an iron hand, Midnight was not impressed, after all, his own father was the darkest and scariest creature he had seen.

“Do you really believe that I came to this school just to sabotage it? What kind of principal are you? Really, you are a woman full prejudice,” if someone had seen close enough, they would have seen a spark of green energy sparkling on his eyes, but of course, Cinch was not very careful and instead started a debate with the young man and much to both sides, they found, if not an ally, at least someone that they thought they could manipulate for their own plans.

On Cinch’s side, she found someone smart, ambitious and charismatic enough that she could use to make the legacy of the school and of course, of Principal Cinch, even larger than it was now. Sadly for Cinch, he had no love for the woman, nor any hint of respect; he felt emptiness inside of him, a hole that couldn’t be filled, neither with books, nor with the maternal love of Radiant Hope. He had the hypothesis that the hole and his emptiness had something to do with the loss of the Element of Faith, that maybe it had vanished as he fought against his father back on Equestria.

Still, he knew that the woman could be useful; after all, she was the leader of an important school, with access to new technology and with a budget that he could use to find a way to regain his power. With all that out of the way, Midnight once more found Twilight, this time in classroom and he was… glad to see her.

“So, what’s your name?” Twilight was once more surprised that someone was talking with her.

“Well, I-I’m Twilight Sparkle; shouldn’t you be more focused on the class?”

“Maybe, so, interested in anything in this school?”

“Well, I am really interested in finding, measuring and obtaining new types of energy,” as the two worked on the classroom and finished the practice in record time. It was like this that his first day at school was over and he met with Hope back at their home… home, that still sounded weird to him.

“So, how was this day Midnight?”

“It was… interesting.”

02 - Open Gate

This year the score from Crystal Prep students trend to the highest from its history but so do an unstable emotional state, product from a constant stress. Dean Cadence had not had so much work in such a short time. Also some students have to deal with mind collapse in the middle of the classroom. All this occurred after the admission of Midnight, who archive the highest scores without any effort. Nobody can understand how he can do that, because he never has a book, a laptop, even a smartphone with him, only a simple notebook with random notes and drawing with no sense. Only one was able to follow its scores, and she spend almost all her time inside a lab.

For Midnight, Crystal Prep only is a resource that need to be used until end up completely with it. His progress was something that make a Sombra and Hope impressed but also they start to thinking about the other students, with the Friendship Games coming and the constant stress from all, they only need to wait to see how the school collapse even before the games.

“Midnight, we're really proud of everything that you achieved it but, you’re harming the rest of the students, everyone will be in trouble if you continue like this”

“Hope, are you suggesting that I fail on purpose?”

She take a deep breath, then smile “No sweetie, I’m saying that you need to start to help to your fellas, give them your support and they'll do the rest”

He had a lot to thank both Hope and Sombra, without them he would never have been in the place where he is now, nor would he have found someone as fun as Sombra to play and practice, as Hope said, they were equal. She kiss him on her forehead and leave him alone on her room.

Now alone, he just looked at the sky, it was a beautiful moonlit night. However, an explosion of light caught his full attention, a multicolored energy like a rainbow flooding the sky and fell to the ground in a whirlpool. It was a few moments but the amount of energy expelled was such that he could feel it

“That was… magic” he was amazed, thinking about just happened “but what am I saying, of course it was magic”

All the posibilities ended in the same result. After a long meditation the anwer was only one: Magic from the elements, but this one was more stable, although lacks power in comparison. Someone was able to brough Equestrian magic to this world, magic that he wasn't been able to do yet. In the middle of frustration, a name came to his mind with the solution.

“Twilight Sparkle! She is working with Energy spectra, maybe she will be able to help me to recover my magic”

This would be a unique opportunity. Midnigh finially would be able to fulfit his mission by finding Noche and finish him at once for all. But he had to find another source of Magic because, has Sorrow said, Nobody would be able to fight against Umbrums with the same kind of Magic more than once.

“The elements of union wouldn't work against him, the same about the Crystal Heart or the Dragon's scepter. I will have to find the way to create other elements in this place, but first in need my magic back”

But he wasn't able to see the danger that recover his magic mean. Without another good plan in his mind, he began to think about Twilight Sparkle, being unable to avoid blushing for it. He had useful information for Twilight and her proyect, anyway the energy source that she was studing and the equestrian magic were the same thing.

A new day had begun in Crystal Prep and all the students already have the misery and stress in their faces. With the Friendship Games in the next door, the daily quizes and the exausting physic training of Sombra, their minds were near to collaps. And that situation was unacceptable for Principal Cinch.

Meanwhile Midnight, far from feeling overwhelmed, he was enjoying all the extra work, because it meant that he would recover his magic sooner. He was going to Sombra's practice when dean Cadence intercepted him.

“Hi Midnight, How's it going?”

“Very well dean Cadence, i'm so excited for the frienship games. I'm sure that we will win it easilly”

“That's the spirit. By the way, now that you mention in, Principal Cinch is looking for you, she want's to talk about the games with you”

The Principal's office always seems to by a dark place, with shadows surround it inside and with the dim light from lamps it was the perfect recipe for a creepypasta. In the middle of tha scene, was principal cinch. At first look she seemed worried about something. At the moment that each other looked onto their eyes, Cinch took of her glasses and massage her eyes. Midngiht took a deep breath and just waited.

“I'm impressed with your high records Midnight, I couldn't expect less than that from Sombra and Hope's son but, Even though the whole school follows you steps, I am worried about their mental state, if we continue to demand them the same results as yours, the won't be able to win or even participate in friendship games”

Midnight was terrified., All seemed to be really serious if Cinch was worried about students and seeing her like that reallyy was scary.

“So... i'm here because...?”

““I need you to help them, at least the team that will participate in the games. You are one of my brighter students, so i need you became their tutor. I'm sure that with your help, we will be able to keep the winning reputation from Crystal Prep”

“I have one condition” Cinch could't expect less from Midnight “I want to be Lab partner of Twilight Sparkle”

“Consider it done”

Principal Cinch got up from her seat with a big smile on her face, action that caused a disturvance in Midnight. In other hands, he just left the office as quickly his feet were able to dit it. All the pieces of this game were in their right places. Now it was just a matter of time.

“Midnight. Are you right?”

That sweet and unmistakable voice brouth him to the reality again “Do you feel alright?”

“What's the matter, Dean Cadan...?” He was not able to finish his words. For a moment he saw his hands, pale and cold as snow but only for moments before falling unconscious.

“Someone call the nurse inmediatly!

"We want to come outside"

"We need her, she have the answers"

"Don't wake him, he is dangerous"

"He is torn at half"

"Be careful with the one with green eyes"

"Wake up" "Wake up" "Wake up!!!"

“What happened, Son?”

Midnight woke up in the nursing, His head felt like it was going to explode. He was able to hear Cadence and Hope in the other room. With him was Night, acting like a father taking care of his sick son. “Are you ...?

“please no, not that question again” Midnight interrupted Sombra “i'm sorry, it's just... I'm not sure about what happended, Dean Cadente asked me the same questions and then i felt like a Truck have passing over me” That words hitted Sombra like a bucket of cold water “but I feel better now”

“Pincipal Cinch is worried about you, she believes that you have been overworking, And Hope insisted to her that you should take a break”

Author's Note

After an abysmal absence, finally I'll resume this scrip. I truly hope to be able to continue more often