Black Sun

Night Light was in the middle of packing up his things after classes at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns let out when he had gotten the message. The message told him that he was to report to the castle, immediately. By order of Princess Celestia herself.

Night’s hooves clattered against the floor as he approached the castle. As he neared the front entrance, he heard a mare calling after him.

“Hey, Night Light!”

The blue stallion turned upon hearing his named called and saw who was.

“Hello, Viola. How are you?”

Approaching was a white unicorn mare with a green mane and tail that were curled at the ends and green eyes with a cutie mark which consisted of a ten pointed, green and orange star with a black treble clef at the center. Her name was Viola Chords, a fellow professor at the school.

“I’m doing well.” She said. “Are you heading to the castle as well? Because the only time I see you going in this direction is when you’re going to the castle.”

“I am actually.” Night said. “I assume you are as well?”

“Indeed.” Viola said cheerfully. “Come on we’ll talk along the way.”

The castle towered over as the two ponies approached.

“Before I forget, thank you so much for looking after my baby filly.” Viola said gleefully. “I can’t thank you two enough.”

“It’s no trouble at all, Viola.” Night said. “I swear, Velvet raves every time you want someone to watch over Lyra. After all, you say that every time you come back after a day of school.”

“Has she been behaving herself?” Viola asked as they approached the front gate.

“As much as a little filly can.” Night answered.

The two got to the castle gates where several guards stood firm. One of them saw the two coming.

“Night Light and Viola Chords?” The armored unicorn asked.

“Yes, that is us.” Night confirmed.

“The Princess is expecting you.” The guard explained. “You’ll find her at the Royal Suite.”

The guard allowed the two unicorns to pass.

After climbing the tall staircase, Night and Viola found themselves outside the Royale Suite. And in front of them, was Celestia herself.

“You’re highness.” The unicorns said in unison, before bowing.

“I am glad you two could come at such short notice.” Celestia said in her usual calm and collected voice. “I apologize if I am keeping you from anything important.”

“It is not a problem, dear Princess.” Night said.

“What is it you require?” Viola asked.

Celestia looked over at the suite door and back at the two unicorns. But before she could even begin to explain, they were all suddenly made aware that a fourth party was approaching, as indicated by the sound of loud hoof steps clattering up the stairs. The two unicorns and alicorn turned and saw an amber color, unicorn filly screech to a halt at the top of the stairs. Her mane and tail were crimson with golden highlights with a blazing sun for a cutie mark. She also had a saddlebag, the contents being unknown.

“Sunset? What are you doing here?” Celestia said with surprise. “Aren’t you supposed to be studying?”

“I heard from Inkwell that a weird creature appeared after you tried out that spell.” The filly answered. “So I got here as I fast I could.”

Celestia looked at the door again, and this time looked at the filly before her.

“I’m sorry, Sunset.” She said. “But this is a grown up matter.”

Disappointment immediately replaced the enthusiasm on Sunset’s face.

“Aww, please?” She then opened her saddlebag and retrieved a notepad and pencil. “I even brought paper for notes. Can I pleeeease look to?”

Sunset eyes changed from that of a filly to that of a puppy. Something that even Celestia, the most powerful being in Equestria, isn’t immune from.

The Princess sighed.

“Alright, Sunset. You win.” She said. “But once were done here, you are to go straight back to the library to continue your studies. You understand?”

That was all Sunset needed to hear as she practically tackled Celestia into a hug, causing her to let out a laugh.

“Alright, calm down.” She said as she picked her student up with her magic. “But before we go in, let me introduce you to these two. Meet Night Light and Viola Chords.”

Sunset turned to Night and Viola.

“Hello.” She said. “I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Hi there.”

“With that out of the way.” Celestia said. “Let us meet our new guest. Shall we?"

Celestia slowly opened the door into the Royal Suite. The lights were off as their guest was sleeping.

“Be very quiet.” The Princess whispered.

She then tip-hoofed into the room, followed by Night, Viola, and Sunset.

They saw that there seemed to be some sort of mass in the bed, as part of the sheets were rising and falling.

After several more steps, all four were surrounding the bed. With a glow of her horn, Celestia turned the lights on, but dimmed them to the point that they could see but didn’t disturb the occupant of the bed.

Gently as she could, Celestia used her magic to pull the covers back, revealing that the bed’s occupant was something that none of the three unicorns have ever seen before.

The creature looked to be some sort of mammal, with only dark brown hair on the top of its head. The creature’s skin was light colored, and was covered by some black colored clothing. To the side of the bed on the floor was a pair of black boots. On its jacket were what appeared to be several medals and on the left arm was some sort of red cloth which had a white circle and a black cross like shape.

“What is it?” Viola quietly asked. “Some sort of species of monkey we don’t know about?”

“It appears so.” Night said.

He glanced over at Sunset and saw that she was scribbling notes onto her notepad.

He then turned to the princess.

“Where did it come from?” He asked.

“Like Sunset said, I was working with this spell I had come across.” Celestia explained. “It was an old spell I found in Starswirl’s old archives. The spell itself was to send anything and anypony to another world. Apparently when I sent an ink well through, he appeared in its place.”

Night looked back at the creature.

“Other than those hoof, or feet coverings, did he have anything else on him?”

Celestia directed Night and the other two to the dresser in the room. On the top were several items. One of them was a bag of some sort, the kind used to hold special papers. The second was a black hat which bore a metal eagle and some sort of symbol none of them recognized. The third item looked to be some sort of leather mass attached to a belt.

Sunset approached and picked up the hat with her magic and put it on her own head. She had to put the hat on at an angle to compensate for her horn. After several moments, the hat fell off.

As Sunset set the hat back on the dresser and jotted down on her notepad, Viola took hold of the belt.

“Look, there’s a buckle on the leather thing.” She said.

She then used her magic to undo the buckle and open a flap. Inside was something that none of them has ever seen before. It looked to be made of metal and appeared to have several moving parts. One of these parts looked like some sort of switch. Viola flipped the switch, revealing a red dot underneath. She then saw some sort of lever within a part that looked like a ring.

“Viola I don’t think that’s a good…”

*BANG*

Night’s protest was silenced by the explosion-like, deafening sound that lit up the room for a moment with a fire-like flash that spat out from the rod like part of the device, which was followed by the brief sound of glass shattering. Viola jumped, dropping the strange device before covering her mouth with her hooves, Celestia and Night yelped and jumped back, Sunset threw her pencil and notepad out of fright.

The ponies were not the only ones startled, as they heard a loud thud, as if something heavy dropped to the floor which followed by a loud shout.

"Der Feind!"

“It’s awake!” Sunset said with shock.

The creature scrambled to its feet and felt around part of his jacket as if it were looking for something.

"Meine Waffe!?" It said with what seemed like panic. "Wo ist meine Waffe!?

The creature looked around the room, realizing that it wasn’t alone.

"Wer seit ihr?" It said in what appeared to be a question. "Wo ist...?"

The creature looked directly at the floor at Viola’s feet, seeing the device.

Without warning, the creature dashed for it, causing Viola to jump out of the way as the creature took hold of it and then point the part the flash came from at everypony. After what happened when Viola handled it, they realized that it might be some sort of weapon.

As soon as the rod-like part was pointed towards them, Night and Viola scurried behind the bed, Sunset ran and hid behind Celestia who spread her wings and took a defensive stance.

“Wo bin ich?” The creature said. "Ich verlange zu erfahren weshalb ich gefangen gehalten werde!"

Still in her defensive stance, Celestia caught on to that the creature was speaking a different language entirely. After a quick thought, her horn glowed and sent a jolt of magic towards the creature.

“Verstehst du mich?” The creature said again as the magic jolt absorbed into him. “I am an officer of the German Reich! Holding me captive is such a way is an act of war upon the Reich! Now tell me, why are…?”

The creature then slowly stopped talking. It then slightly lowered the strange weapon.

“I’m speaking English? Why am I speaking English?” It then remembered that the ponies were in the room. “More importantly.” He then raised the weapon again. “Who are you and why am I being held captive? Answer me!”

Celestia looked down at Sunset who was still cowering behind one of her legs. She then turned back to the black clad creature.

“Listen, we don’t wish to hurt you.” She said as calmly as she could, trying to keep her anger at bay. “Just put whatever that weapon is down, and we can talk.”

The angry creature was quiet as he kept the weapon aimed at them.

“Look, put the weapon down.” Celestia said. “We can talk about this. Just please put the weapon down, there’s a filly here.”

The creature looked down at Celestia’s legs and saw the crimson maned filly shaking with fear.

Celestia saw that the look in the creature’s eyes had changed, from that of anger, to sympathy.

The creature then slowly lowered the weapon. It then backed up the wall and slid down it, sitting down onto the floor.

Celestia folded her wings and stood normally. She then slowly walked forward toward the creature.

“Are you calm?” She asked. “Do you need anything?”

The creature looked up at Celestia with a pair of blue eyes.

“An explanation.” He answered. “If that is alright.”