The Ballad of Midnight Edge

Midnight Edge left the farm feeling uneasy. Letting down adventurous ponies was not something he liked to do, but he refused to put a filly in danger. He liked to play the role of vigilante in big cities for the thrill of adventure, he often felt like jumping into the maw of monsters to cut them from the inside, he was not the kind of pony that kept foals as companions, his companions had to be at leas half as experienced adventurers as he was.

Any of Twilight Sparkle's friends was a good candidate for a travel companion, they did something he never did after all, saving a world. But a filly, a city girl to worsen matters, was not a useful candidate. And her cutie mark, a pair of scissors. What kind of adventurer had a pair of scissors as cutie mark? What kind of adventurer or fighter used scissors as a tool or weapon? The mere idea felt stupid and wrong in his mind.

Nevertheless he felt uncomfortable. As if he did something terrible by rejecting her. As if by trying to keep her safe from his own reckless behavior he insulted her. He imagined how she could feel, he was not only reckless and adventurous, he was also curious, always eager to know more. He found as much thrill in exploring a cave or ancient ruins as in reading books, and wondered if maybe he refused to share his knowledge with someone as curious as him. That was what made him uneasy, he could not focus, he was stressed, his way out was simple, play video games, he got that hobby from his travels in more advanced worlds. But video games were rare in Equestria. They were common in bigger cities, but not in Ponyville, and the technical aspects were rudimentary. There were no action packed mindless shooting games, no visually inspiring role playing games, no fast paced elaborate puzzles. At least the genres existed, but not as he was used to, and were harder to find.

He finally found a place. There was an arcade cabinet in front of an old grocery store. He stared at the display and noticed it was a shooter, one of his favorite styles in fact, a side scroll format game where the player controlled a space ship. He looked at the high scores before placing the bit in the cabinet, the There was space for three characters in each name, the first ones had names, BAB, BM, RD, PIE, the rest were just three A letters on the screen.

Midnight Edge felt extremely amused by the silly fact that few ponies cared about the name in the end. It seemed so common, almost common in all universes, there was at least one AAA in the top players wherever there was an arcade cabinet. He often made jokes about it, telling outlandish stories about a planeswalker who forgot his name and traveled worlds only to play video games and make it to the top ten, placing AAA as his name since it was the only letter in his name he remembered. The legendary player AAA was sort of an inside joke among his friends who played video games, a form of noticing that there was always a player among the top five who would always press the confirmation button three times without changing the default starting character out of laziness or ignorance.

As soon as he prepared to put a bit in the cabinet a small hoof placed a bit on the controller area. Midnight Edge recognized the meaning, a challenge, there were two controllers in the cabinet. The game was meant to be playable for more than one player simultaneously, and that made it possible to compete for the highest score.

"I challenge you. If you win I'll never talk to you again, but if I win you must explain why you don't like me." He recognized the voice, it felt almost ominous, as if his guilt played tricks on his mind.

"Were you following me? Why are you here?"

"I was not feeling fine. I go here when I am bored or need to distract myself from something."

"I get your point. Do you go here often?"

"Not really. My cousins are great, and things rarely get bored. But I used to play a lot in Manehattan."

"Is it boring?" Midnight Edge wondered if she was bored or she was like him. But why would a pair of scissors scare other foals? She was not a freak with a mark that changed with success, her mark was not notable after a violent feat, she would not have bad reputation for picking fights and then isolating herself to avoid rejection.

"We can talk once I win. Now get ready!"

"No best of three matches. Once you lose all continues you are out, and whoever gets the highest score wins. No rematches, no extra rounds. Deal?"

"Just put that bit and start playing. I'm not scared just because you are older."

"And I am not going easy on you just because you are a filly or because of your weird accent."

"As if you sounded like a prince!"

He found her reply funny. It was true, his accent sounded weird. A friend of him even pestered him for sounding like “An angry Scotsman a haggis away of having tartan for skin.” Not that their accents were different, but at least his friend was a Scotsman so the accent was more fitting.

"I will show you what a gamer tempered by the challenges of advanced technologies can do!"

"I'll make you take me to those inter-dimensional arcades of you if I win just to make you take back your words."

They completed the game in record time, every single enemy ship, every single boss, all destroyed. The game was cooperative, but each player had a separate score, and Midnight Edge lagged behind. With all his continues lost and only one life left by the end of the game he was ridiculed by Babs Seed's near perfect score. He placed his bit first so he took the player one place, the name MID figured right above the now seventh AAA, not a big surprise, he never reached the top five, the surprise would come from player two, his unwanted companion. The name on the screen was BAB, right there displacing BM which was now third, the highest score and the second place had the same name.

"Whoever that BM was, that was the first place before I played this one. That punk even asked the owner to reset the cabinet twice, but every time that happens I return and put my name in the highest one. Soon I'll put the poor kid in seventh place again if there's not another reset."

"That is technically cheating you know?"

"I won fair and square. I did not know you were going to be that bad. The last boss blasted me just because I felt like saving your flank."

"Ugh. Fine. I will answer your questions. But you better do as I say after that."

"Tell me why you hate me then." The filly was not going to take any half truth, she wanted honesty, even if it was blunt and painful.

"I don't. I actually like you. But you are too young..."

"Too young for what? It is not as if I asked you to make me a royal guard!"

"Too young to travel with me. I get in trouble, I go to dangerous places, I fight with monsters and craft things with what is left of them. I don't want you to get involved."

"My cousin saved the world at least twice! You think a few timber wolves are big deal?"

"You were scared the first time I saw you, and followed by a few timber wolves."

"Fine. I was scared. But you don't always do that. Do you?"

"Well, no, but I don't want you to follow me or grow fond of me. I don't want you to feel sad if you never see me again, and you can't join me in my biggest adventures."

"Are your best adventures always dangerous?"

"Well, I could take you to that world which is one big city, or the land of the stone creatures. But I am not taking anypony in my travels. None of my companions has been a pony and none will ever be."

"What about your travels here, In Equestria? At least you could let ponies join you in those."

"Not you. You are still in school, and your parents could not let you go."

"I am on vacation right now. That's why I am in Ponyville. I'll return to Manehattan once school starts again. At least now I'm glad to be there too."

"Tell me something. Do you know why I don't like to be alone?"

"No. But I don't know of anypony who likes to feel alone. I didn't like to feel that way."

"If you tell me what made you feel that way I will consider giving you a second chance. But it could be a bit boring, it implies a library."

"I got my cutie mark later than other ponies. They called me “blank flank” at school. Nopony liked me and I did not tell my parents."

"Is that so? I hate cutie marks."

"What? But that's what makes you special!"

"True. And I would never give mine away. But they also cause you trouble. I don't know if you are pleased with yours now, but I hated mine when I was your age."

"Why would you hate yours? It makes you a hero."

"No. It makes me a fighter. That is what it means, every task I complete makes it change, but there is something special that makes it change a bit more when I fight and win."

"Sounds like one of those fancy new video games."

"Everybody says that." Everybody, the word existed, but sounded weird, it did not fit unless there was a minotaur or something, and that was not usual.

"You mean everypony. Don't you?"

"No. You are the first pony to make the comparison."

"You mean your other friends?"

"Yes. But that means, for a foal, that you get the reputation of picking fights in school, that beating bullies was just an attempt at making your freak mark shine, that you were a crazy show off with a weird cutie mark that moved."

"But Countess Coloratura has a shiny cutie mark too. It shines and moves when she sings."

"When she sings. Not when she just threw a few colts to the ground for stealing a younger colt's lunch. When I was your age only my relatives liked me. I grew up looking for a way out of my boring home. That is what made me travel for five years away from Equestria."

He rarely told his past to anyone who was not another planeswalker. After all he only told about his past to those who knew what being an outcast felt like, one of his friends became a planeswalker after killing his own brother, another just before a group of bullies tried to kill him, another after being sent to prison without committing any crime, and one after decades of meditation.

He knew planeswalkers awakened by extreme situations, near death experiences, emotional loss, outstanding effort. At least he did not ignite his spark through pain. No, he got that power from the thrill of his first successful adventure. Leaving Canterlot hoping to never see that place again meant a lot to him, but even more realizing it was not a mistake. The excitement of taking an ancient artifact from a long forgotten tomb ignited his spark and sent him, with his new loot, to an unknown place. The memories of his first adventure floated in his mind as he continued.

"I found a way to reach other universes by mere luck after exploring an ancient tomb. And I felt there was no reason for me to return."

"What about your family?"

"My parents were fine with that. My brother moved to Cloudsdale, a city full of pegasi like him. My sister, well, last time I saw her she was too busy with her research, and when I returned after two years she was gone. Whatever she found it motivated her to leave and never come back. I know where she is, but I also know she went completely insane and that is why I don't look for her anymore. Well, maybe not completely insane, but she is a lot weirder and not very welcoming to visitors. She says others interrupt her magnum opus, whatever that means."

"So you don't have any ties to Equestria? Nothing that makes you want to return?"

"If that was the case I would not be here. But I rarely return to where I grew up. I prefer to be at places where there are creatures other than ponies."

"Why? Do you have a crush on a griffin? Or maybe a dragon? Who's the lucky girl?"

"It is not love, but it is something I like. You see, I was also a freak because... Well... Don't be scared when I tell you."

"What's it? Let me guess, you eat meat!"

"What? How did you? Do I smell like...?"

"No, but there had to be something other that just a weird cutie mark and picking a few fights that made you feel so rejected."

"You are a clever one. Is that the meaning of your cutie mark?"

"No, that's just an extra. I got my cutie mark while trimming my mane."

"I knew you were not cut for the adventurer style."

"I also cleared the name of a mare and put a thief behind bars in case you think I am not good enough."

"Half detective half hair stylist. You would be a great comedy movie heroine. I bet there is a film like that somewhere, an action hero who just wants to cut hair."

"Well, at least I don't eat other ponies."

"Neither do I. I just eat the same meats griffins and minotaurs eat."

"I know, I was just messing with you."

...

Both shared their past with each other. That day both got a new friend. One was a hair stylist, the other claimed to be the biggest freak ever born in Canterlot. And both headed to Twilight Sparkle's library, followed by a spore covered creature from a distant world.

...