Chapter Sixteen: Roots of Midnight

Midnight Wind took another swig of the headache medicine that he had been given from Ponyville’s local nurse, Redheart. After giving a grimace to the bitter taste, the Thestral Night Guard settled down with his lunch at the table, making an effort to not create any noise so as to awaken his hostess and assigned partner.

However, instead of eating, Midnight’s mind began to drift. His eyes were left content to stare at the sunflower and lettuce sandwich as the stallion mulled over his stay with Twilight Sparkle. That ever eager, ever organized, and ever unceasingly hungered for knowledge, Canterlotian mare.

He gave a soft frown as the stallion remembered the mare’s place of birth. Like a calm wave, other memories began to surface to the front of Midnight’s mind. One memory presenting itself with a vision fifteen years ago, during a time where a young colt was told of ancient stories from his elders about the Princess of the Night, and he would cuddle with his pillow with dreams of aiding the Princess in wild fantasies of adventure.

«««✧✦✧»»»
The wide-eyed young colt and his mother were walking through the streets of Canterlot, the smells of fried corn dogs and crispy hay fries overwhelming the air. Vendors busied themselves, announcing the benefits of their products or wares which they offered to the passersby and the whimsical shoppers. Food stall vendors equally busied themselves, both in preparing food and giving the occasional cry about their food, baiting other ponies by both their noses and bellies. The majestic Canterlot Castle pierced the sky, whitewashed with golden roofing, the banners with the sun and sun rays in yellows and oranges splashed and patterned. There were so many unicorns in this city, quite possibly the highest unicorn population compared with similar larger cities! Ponies here and there, dressed fancy with black overcoats and white dress shirts. Mares with fancy dresses and often seen with sun umbrellas and folding fans. The colt saw one mare, her dress and folding fan decorated elegantly with blue and gold, flirt and giggle at one stallion attempting to woo her.

Yet, despite the grandeur and majesty of the Castletown of Canterlot, one fancily dressed and nearing elderly age unicorn noblemare crossed paths with the young colt and his mother, quickly sneering on sight of the pair. Whether she had intended for them to hear or not, the shape of Thestral ears made it quite easy to hear her scornful muttering of ‘oversized vermin,’ being a ‘scourge and defiling Canterlot.’ Little Midnight’s eyes turned to look at the mare in confusion, only for the firm hoof from his mother changing his attention as he saw a neutral frown lay upon her face, not once looking down or back.
«««✧✦✧»»»

Midnight’s frown fell away, his memories souring unhappily with what the Daylight Ponies thought of Thestrals in so much of his colthood, wide eyed fantasies and seeking adventures in every way weighed down by the insults of the older generation.

Another memory arose to the forefront of his mind. The days Midnight felt blessed just seeing Princess Luna in person as she returned and sought to recover from exile, the jubilant joy seeing his accepted papers, causing a ruckus throughout his family’s territory in eager celebration. Despite his mother’s exasperation, even she did not deny herself a look of pride from the moment. Even remembering that simple moment would rekindle a giddy flame in his heart, and that memory had served him well in his hardships as a Night Guard.

«««✧✦✧»»»
Midnight was one of the guards stationed around the Royal courtroom. His silver and midnight blue armor gleaming, fresh from the hooves of the blacksmiths hired by Princess Luna herself, how it shone after nights of polish training. Sadly that was not what the stallion’s attention was on. What caught his attention was a fancily dressed Thestral mare and her husband. Duchess Silverlight and Duke-consort Bloodfang, considering that they were one of the few Thestral Royals that the Thestral tribes had. Behind them was an opulently dressed unicorn mare, Madame Guildenshine. Guidenshine had trotted in front of Silverlight and her husband and essentially ‘cut-in-line.’

Silverlight cleared her throat, which prompted Guildenshine to turn her head and raise an eyebrow at her. “I quite remember that you were queued behind us, unless you unicorns prance with your noses so high in the air that you neglect to look at what's in front of you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had an unfortunate case of falling down stairs. I am quite certain that one of these fine guardspony can offer assistance if you require such aid.”

Guildenshine scoffed and retorted snootily, “My business with the princess is of greater importance than whatever you filthy vermin could possibly have. By Celestia’s name, you should be more thankful that such low vermin are permitted to be here!”

It was at that time that Midnight and a nearby Royal Guard approached Guildenshine, knowing full well how quickly the situation would escalate if they did not. “Return to your queue.” He said.

The noblesmare turned to face him with a face reminding him of failed transfiguration spells, “Do you not know who I am?”

Warnings from the more friendly Royal Guards were enough to keep Midnight’s emotions at a standstill as he replied, “Barring war declarations or armed incursions into the sovereign nation of Equestria, all petitioners are to be treated equally with regards to the order in which they were queued. By order of Princess Celestia, return to your former queue, or you will lose your queue position and you will be barred from petitioning the Crown for a full day cycle.”

“Celestia will hear of this! Mark my words!” Guildenshine swore as she haughtily returned to her former queue in line. There were now two guardsponies approximately a yard’s distance to either side of Guildenshine as a precaution and to further deter any further action by the unicorn mare.
«««✧✦✧»»»

Midnight’s smile fell quickly. As that memory was the beginning of his revelation, how deep the division and racism between the Daylight Ponies and Thestrals truly went. As a colt, he couldn’t understand what brought such anger and hate, and thought it was merely stallions and mares being old.

Guildenshine and Duchess Silverlight may have been his first to see such treatment, and they would not be the last encounter of Ponies and Thestrals, verbally scrabbling at each other's throats. Ever since he had been taught about the beloved Princess of the Night’s exile and how it brought the end of the Night Guard, Midnight realized that he had been born under a time of strife and tribalism. Luna’s rebellion and her transformation into Nightmare Moon may have been over two millennia, and nopony would know or remember such an event but the Day Ponies’ misgivings against the Thestrals had long since endured, scary foal stories or not.

While both the Pegasi and Earth Ponies had their own discrimination against Thestrals, they were minor at best and in comparison. In all of Midnight’s colthood, while the Pegasi maintained their pride about being better flyers, and the Earth Ponies with their stubbornness in being the best farmhooves or toughest workers, the greatest majority of his troubles had always laid at the hooves of the Unicorns.

Canterlotian unicorns however, held the utmost dominion over his strife towards Daylight Ponies. Enough to where he could not even begin to count. Whispered words such as ‘traitor,’ or ‘dirty creature.’ Exploiting any and every moment to make his life both in and out of the Night Guard armor a living Tartarus, acting as if they were doing him a favor, or accusing of being ‘attacked’ by a barbaric bat pony ruffian! There were even ones where shoving or even having magic spells used against him were not uncommon.

And his high-born blood did little to nothing, if not cause Canterlot to become further insidious against him. Even after Princess Luna returned, the capital of Equestria still felt happy to trod upon Thestrals and Princess Luna’s name... Except if Princess Celestia or her Royal Guards were within eyesight.

He may not be a son of the Dragulas, or rather the highest Royal Bloodlines of the Thestrals, but he still was the son of a Duke. And in the very least, it was enough to keep him alive, as the Canterlot unicorns couldn’t have him slain without just cause or a fair trial, but they had become creative of working around such law, no differently than how they became creative in trying to work around Princess Celestia’s laws.

Unicorn stallions would mutter slander like; ‘Did you hear how he became an absolute beast and satisfied his bestial lusts with one of the mares on the castle staff?’ Even mares weren’t above slandering his character and name. ‘I heard a maid didn’t do something just so and he flew into a rage and beat her until she became ugly and scared of stallions!’ It wasn’t just limited to that either. A favorite trick of the unicorns was a ‘sticky hooves’ spell. A simple spell, one that arcanokinetically held the hoof where it was, despite the body’s forward momentum, often causing the target to trip and fall, usually getting some kind of pain from the experience. They were especially delighted when it caused a sprain, or bruising. ‘Clumsy oaf, clumsy oaf, fall to the ground like a great hewn oak!’ was a taunt they enjoyed employing when they did get him to trip and fall. Or they would use their arcanokinesis to sling pebbles and small rocks at him, causing welts and bruises to arise from wherever they hit him.

During the cadet years of his life under the Night Guard, he had been first stationed at the front gates of Canterlot Castle, the early morning hours often begun with Midnight needing to endure a good portion of complaints and disparaging sentiments from the Unicorn mares and stallions. Much of it was just them whining or demanding their dearly beloved Princess Celestia to attend to whatever in Tartarus they wanted to pester her with no matter the time, to damnation with whatever answer he or his superiors responded with.

”I have important business in the castle! I’d probably already be in there if it weren’t for you filthy flying rats holding decent unicorns up!”

“I think the good ponies of Equestria should benefit from these flying rats paying a breathing tax. I’m a fair stallion, so I’d agree to a tax of one bit per breath being paid for by these night loving traitors!”

Midnight’s head shook to throw off some of the angry retorts that trailed behind his thoughts as he continued his meal, the taste of the sandwich losing its flavor in his mouth.

A concerning number of Unicorns put in accusations of ‘black, dirty bats’ were trying to keep everypony away from Princess Celestia, attempting a silent coup against their precious Princess. Midnight’s memories continued to assail him as he recalled several times when various unicorns had huffed in impatience.

”If the proper Royal Guards were operating these gates, us important ponies would have already been inside the castle. I simply don’t understand why we must suffer these fools, much less waste our valuable time waiting and having our stuff rifled through like some common boor!”

“It’s those filthy bat’s fault! They want to keep the majority of us out so that we can’t protect the Princess once they begin their secret coup d'etat against our beloved Princess!”

‘Filthy bats’ was the kindest, and among their more common and tolerable methods of their name calling. Though they didn’t dare use the more unflattering and more offensive name calling should the Princesses be nearby, as Princess Celestia’s actions with the former noblespony Prince Lockhart set a permanent example to the rest of Canterlot who sat on the throne and what words were tolerable or not.

More than once, the young Midnight would lose his temper, the barrages of name calling reaching a boiling point and breaking past what defenses his training established, getting into one-sided shouting fights or even hoof-fights with the offending noblespony. For much of the resultant fights, he either lost or fell for manipulative tricks designed to give the nobles any and all reason to put in a petition of defunding or removing the Night Guards entirely from Canterlot. All of them given straight to Princess Celestia, of course.

And then came his meeting with the Night Princess herself … .

«««✧✦✧»»»
Midnight stood in his uniform before the two Equestrian Princesses as well as his commanding officer. Princess Luna picked up a sheaf of papers in a magical grip, lightly ruffling them as she stared hard at her errant Guard.

“Private Midnight,” She began, her voice sounding strained as her eyes pinned the Thestral to the floor, “Do you know what these are?”

“A petition for the expulsion of Thestrals from serving in Equestrian security and military forces and to have them exiled from Canterlot, if not the entirety of Equestria?” Midnight ventured, his words coming softly.

“And how many times will you stand before us, not behaving in a manner worthy of a member of the Night Guard, Midnight Wind? How long until we’ve no choice but to send you away in dishonor and shame?”

“Wha- Princess!” Whatever Midnight might have said in his defense was cut off when his princess raised her hoof, stopping him from whatever verbal tirade which might not have come forth.

“As a member of the Night Guard, you are held to a higher standard than what might be expected of any other security detail or military group. Your princesses expect our guard to behave with honor and dignity, not like brigands or mercenaries. Tell me Private, are we wrong to expect this of our Night Guards? Are we asking too much of them?”

“No, But-” Again, Midnight was interrupted from whatever defense he could possibly make, Princess Luna’s voice gaining an edge, her eyes growing hard and exemplifying how little patience she had left.

“We expect you to behave in a manner worthy of the honor and dignity which is expected of our Night Guard. We don’t want excuses, nor do we wish to continue to be informed of your failures in living up to what is expected as our Night Guard. Sergeant, I will leave it to your discretion whether Midnight’s family is informed of his behavior as one of our Night Guards.”

“Your Majesty!” Midnight’s Sergeant replied, snapping off a crisp, sharp salute.

Midnight’s blood ran as cold as freezing river water during the height of winter. If his family ever learned of him causing problems for his Princess, being exiled would probably be the kindest thing that could happen to him!

Princess Luna stopped at the door of the meeting room which they were in, deciding to give her last warning, “Our patience is not infinite, Private Midnight. If you insist on continuing with this, we will deem you unfit to serve as a member of our Night Guard, dishonorably discharged and barred from future service to Equestria and her Crowns.” Luna’s eyes narrowing as she glared at the shaky-kneed Private, “Be the guardspony we rely upon you to be, Private Midnight.”

Then both princesses left, the door’s slam sounding unnaturally loud, like the bang of a judge’s gavel when he caught sight of his commanding officer glaring at him with eyes narrowed in anger. No words were spoken, for none were needed. Midnight knew how thin the ice he was treading on was. Then after a brief moment, his Sergeant also got up, leaving Midnight alone in the meeting room.

That phrase, ‘dishonorably discharged,’ made him shudder. If he returned to his family with that kind of shame tarnishing his name and that of his family, he would be lucky to retain any part of his body as he would face exile.
«««✧✦✧»»»

Midnight’s awareness returned as he found himself half-huddled under the table, sweat pouring down his face. If there was one nightmare that he was certain his Princess could not soothe, it would be this. Facing not only dishonorable discharge from the one Princess he had grown so much to adore, and facing his mother’s rage.

It was no idle fear to be afraid of his life and body from his own family. The Canterlotian Unicorns may feel devastated in being simply removed from nobility and their family name stripped, but among the Thestral noble houses, blood, wings and or legs were oft left behind. There was so little tolerance for unchanging failure.

Midnight’s ears perked as he heard an audible creak. His mind snapped, his years of training alerting him, his body jolting out from under the table without a thought, the Thestral’s head on a swivel.

The front door was closed and still locked and the windows didn’t look tampered with. The Thestral let silence reign as he tried to listen and hear how there wasn’t a storm or strong breeze happening outside.

Midnight’s head swiveled towards the stairs and saw nopony there. While he couldn’t hear the soft sighing from Twilight and Spike, he couldn’t hear them moving about above him on the 2nd floor of the library.

His eyes finally turned to the table and located the source of the noise. Midnight’s memories had caused him to grip the table with his hooves extremely hard, which caused indents into the wood and nearly splintered the furniture.

Sighing and taking a moment to close his eyes and just breathe, Midnight’s eyes flickering left and right underneath his eyelids as the Thestral mentally pushed himself to turn away from the memories and nightmares of his foalhood and early stallionhood.

He didn’t know how long it took to calm down and not fall into that familiar pit that plagued him since Princess Luna’s reprimands, but Midnight’s mind found a new direction to roil with memories. Not willing to fight himself, the Thestral’s focus began to turn to more recent events, more specifically what he had heard and learned about Twilight Sparkle.

During his tenure as a Night Guard, “horror stories” had been spun about between both the Night and Royal Guards about Princess Celestia’s student. Whenever his interest piqued and he asked for clarity, the senior guards of both orders would wax eloquently about Twilight’s eccentricity.

Royal Guard Sergeant Haymaker’s voice echoed in Midnight’s mind, his chuckle almost sounding so real again inside the treehouse, as if he had suddenly teleported next to the Thestral, “Rookie, that little filly was something else. Always had her nose in a book. She’d often even walk with her nose in one. Frequently bumping into everypony, not being aware of her peripheral surroundings. Not a few times, the Royal Librarian would call us into the Royal Library to help carry a sleeping Twilight to bed, while the Royal Librarian would mutter to herself as she dismantled whichever constructed book buildings the little filly had done at that time. I don’t think she’s ever grown out of it, even if she’s not living in Canterlot anymore.”

... Now that the Sergeant had spoken about “book building,” Midnight’s mind connected one memory to another, a time that his mother had brought him into a social party hosted by the more tolerant Day Ponies.

There truly wasn’t much that he remembered of the social party hosted by some of the more tolerable Day Ponies, not that a young colt would bother to form memories over whose name it was or adults talking about things he wasn’t interested in. However, if Midnight could remember correctly he had successfully snuck out of the party and as a result became lost in Canterlot Castle.

«««✧✦✧»»»
The young colt looked in disbelief at the massive book structure located in one of the atriums of the Royal Library. There in front of him with all the detailing, all the effort put into replicating, was the Stalliongrad Castle, scaled down and built solely by books within the Library. The towers stood there, defying gravity and strong, surely held together by magic, as he couldn’t imagine how this castle made of books could possibly remain standing otherwise.

He trotted around the outer walls, inspecting the detailing with fascination as he didn’t hear or notice the hoofsteps and voices of the Royal Librarian and a Royal Guard. The young colt didn’t hear them speak about how a certain filly had found a new method of using magical glue to bind, manipulate and carve the books.

Midnight did realize their presence when a harsh noise of the Librarian clearing her throat, startling him. “As much as it is fascinating to see a sculpted depiction of a castle from Stalliongrad in the form of books as well, I don’t believe I know you around this castle. Who are you, colt?”

“M-Prince Midnight Wind.” He stuttered, trying to calm his nerves over both being spotted and surprised, “S-son of—”

“There you are!” A familiar and very unhappy voice interrupted and resounded from behind the Librarian and Guard, making the two ponies turn while Midnight gave a terrified jolt.

There at the entrance to the halls of Canterlot Castle stood his mother, a stern and disappointed frown on her muzzle and her eyes a sharp furrow. The jewelry adorning her leathery wings lightly jingled and her decorated hoofshoes made of silver and amethyst clicked as the mare made her way between the Day Ponies and stood in front of Midnight.

“What precisely brings you to leave without warning?” Her voice cut through his thoughts. Her eyes an even leer at the young colt, a greatly displeased frown worn on her muzzle as she seemed to indicate a demand for answers.

Midnight’s voice cracked and wavered, making a noise but nothing coherent as he tried to find a meaning to answer.

The Guard stepped forward to ask, leaving Midnight in silence and some level of safety from his mother’s focus, “Excuse me miss, this is your foal?”

She didn’t immediately turn to face the stallion as Midnight’s mother responded curtly, “Indeed he is, having left my side unattended, and without a word to me no less.” It was only after her response did the mare turn, eyeing the Guard, “I do hope he hasn’t caused trouble?”

Midnight didn’t catch onto what the stallion replied with as the Librarian held his attention more, walking around the two and staring at the book castle. Eyeing the structure for a moment before eliciting a heavy sigh, the Librarian turned her head before locating and grabbing a basket with her magic, began removing books from the structure and placing them in it, starting from the top.

From there, the young colt with relatively wide and curious eyes kept himself busy watching the mare work away at the castle. He would continue to watch for quite a while, to where the towers had been taken down fully and the Librarian had begun to deal with the walls and everything else that was at the same level of height.

His mother calling his name ended his fascination with the deconstruction as his head swiveled to see the mare look sternly at him, “Come, colt. We are returning to the party, and I am hoping you’ll pay attention this time.”
«««✧✦✧»»»

Midnight, after letting the memory fade away, could swear Twilight had an instinctive mind on designing hard-to-dismantle layouts. There had been horror stories from the Royal Guards where they had required the aid of a team of Unicorns to carefully pry the foundations, the battlements, and even re-transfigure some books back to their original size or shape when they had been made into portcullises and castle stairs.

Had Midnight not become a Night Guard, having seen one of Twilight’s works, and having heard the uniqueness of Twilight Sparkle, he would’ve naively considered her behaviors another quirk of the Unicorn race, besides their obstinate behavior about the purity of blood and how it made them seemingly ‘better’ than other ponies. As during his cadet years of being stationed at the front gates of Canterlot Castle, during the early morning hours before his shift ended, he had to endure a good portion of complaints and disparaging sentiments from the Unicorn mares and stallions. Much of it was just them whining or demanding their dearly beloved Princess Celestia to attend to whatever in Tartarus they wanted to pester her with, to damnation with whatever answer he or his superiors responded with.

In fact whenever he had guard duties at the front entrance of the city, while some of the nobles that lived outside of Canterlot went into their tirade about family trees and why he and the other guard were supposed to give them preferential treatment, Midnight would simply continue his check of either their wagons, or the unicorn themselves, as they’d often be so lost in their recounting of their family tree and bloodline purity that they’d often lose whatever spatial awareness, thus enabling him to search them and whatever they intended to bring into the castle. Confiscations were surprisingly easy when dealing with the Canterlot unicorns, once you got them started on ranting about who they were and their family tree.

His first night with Twilight Sparkle was the night that quickly proved the stallion terribly wrong on his assumptions with Unicorns. The mare had a far greater tendency for tunnel-visioned attitudes for knowledge, and she matched it with a deep sense of hunger that Midnight was slowly coming to believe would not be matched.

That said, not everything had been smooth during that night. Introductions and the initial hours of settling in were fairly easy and without much trouble, but soon enough there was a growing amount about Twilight that grinded against him.

«««✧✦✧»»»
“Sooo... U-uh...” The mare’s stutters combined with her surprise, “Hi! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I-uh, am nice to meet you… I mean it’s nice to meet you, uh again!”

“Sergeant First Class Midnight Wind of the Equestrian Night Guards,” Midnight supplied, recalling a few memories about how the Princess’ protege was prone to stumble and misspeak when excited... Or he recalled that’s what he was told.

It did seem to work for the mare, as he could hear her breathing easing up, “A-I uh, so about P-Princess Luna’s task! Studying a Thestral pony!”

Midnight could almost see the gears spinning and churning in the mare’s head, clearly indicating she was getting over her shock and embarrassment and becoming far too focused for his liking, “Thestrals are feared by many ponies because they look fierce and because of their associations with Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon. Do you mind if I touch your wings? Does having skin-flap style wings cause you to have to flap differently than the feathery fliers? Do you suppose they also serve thermal regulators, cooling the body when it's warm and keeping the body’s heat in when not flying?” Twilight asked, overwhelming Midnight with her interest in acquiring knowledge about his species.

While it was nice not to hear another Canterlot Unicorn refer to him as a ‘dirty bat’ or ‘treasonous traitor,’ he was woefully ill prepared for her intense interest and nearly fell to her pressure, trying to take steps back to gain space. Only for Twilight to take up that space and leave him little room to breath.

“Lady Twilight! I literally just arrived here! Can you give me some time to let me scout the lay of the land before interrogating me like this?!” Midnight nearly yelled, ruffling his wings and feeling an odd prick of irritation and disappointment at her treatment of him.

“No!” Twilight loudly spoke, her passions affecting her vocal volume, “The Thestral tribe is almost completely unknown to ponykind!” She paced back and forth before Midnight, blank scrolls, several inkwells and multiple writing quills arriving to her side through her magic, “Despite the Thestrals returning to the Equestrian stage, so few ponies have ever been brave enough to have any in-depth interactions with the Thestral ponies! And the few that have been brave enough, haven’t written anything at all! You can do all of that stuff that you want to do later. I require answers and insist that you provide as truthful and accurate answers as you are best able!”

It was a blessing and a half with how her dragon-friend-brother had been quick on his claws to offer help to take his belongings, taking them upstairs to where a spare bed could be placed... Unfortunately, that would put Midnight on the opposite side of where Twilight’s bed was. And there were no wall dividers between the two.
«««✧✦✧»»»

From there on until he had managed to beat back the knowledge hungry mare just to rest during the daytime, Twilight would be relentless in asking as much as possible. Ranging from difference in appitite, wingspans, flight times, glide times, and color variance.

Upon reaching history and culture, multiple times would occur where Twilight would give the Thestral a look of confusion or openly tell him that he couldn’t be right. A quick session of “yes I am” and “no you’re not,” and the mare would race off to her library for a minimum of a minute. She would appear with multitudes of books in her magical grasp and would use them to correct him over what they say.

Sadly, the contents of those books she recited to him not only rubbed Midnight the wrong way, it almost felt like she was intentionally lecturing to correct him from what Midnight had been taught by both his mentors and elders. And he was more inclined to believe them than a bunch of Day Pony books.

It didn’t take much or take long for Midnight to quickly snap back and call out the inaccuracies. And perhaps he could have spoken better or worded his responses better, as his words at first caused Twilight to recoil before giving a gasp of offense, as if she couldn’t believe that books could be inaccurate in anything.

Two quickly fell into argument after argument, and how. Twilight, staunchly defending with the fullest belief that her books were correct and could not be wrong, flustered whenever something that she missed came up or went against what she had read. And Midnight telling her that the books she possessed held a bias towards the daytime ponies and weren’t covering the complete story only rewarded the Thestral by making the Unicorn defensive.

«««✧✦✧»»»
“Those scare stories of Nightmare Moon depict Princess Luna’s fall as if it were something that happened instantaneously, but it simply isn’t so. It never was. See, Princess Luna was smarter than many gave her credit for. She knew that without proper preparations, the world couldn’t simply survive on just the day alone. That was why she and a select group of ponies loyal to her were searching for ways to help ‘her’ ponies adapt to the night. Her greatest success was in creating the Thestral race,” Midnight said, his memories providing information on what history his species had.

“Wha- But, there’s nothing in the history books about any of that!” Twilight exclaimed, giving Midnight an incredulous look.

“And who wrote those history books?” Midnight asked, one of his eyebrows raised, “One that favored a more patriotic narrative, or one that tells the whole and ugly truth? If you haven’t found any books anywhere on Thestrals and their history, there’s a pretty obvious reason why. Not all knowledge can be found in a book, Lady Twilight. Especially if they were written by fanatics or liars.”

“You’re wrong! Books are my friends! They wouldn’t lie to me!” Twilight cried in horror, hugging one tome on the history of Equestria to her chest, as if the Thestral had threatened it. Her arcanokinesis quickly attaching to multitudes of books on Equestrian history and settled them around her. She opened one history book after another, “See, there’s nothing about anything that you’ve told me in any of these history books.”

“Yes, because your beloved sun princess is going to tolerate whatever paints her capable of making mistakes of any kind or failing in anything. Especially when it hits so close to home as her failure to actually stop her beloved little sister from becoming Nightmare Moon!” Midnight shouted, irritation in his tone of voice.

Twilight gave another offended gasp before shouting back, angry tears appearing in her eyes as she glared, “Celestia is not like that!”

“Then why is there nothing about what I’ve just told you! The truth is there, but you’ll have to accept that Celestia has censored truths that either attack her character and ability as a ruler, or inconvenience her for whatever reason!” Midnight concluded, his wings spreading open a little further.

“But each of these history books were written by respectable historians!”

“Are any of them Thestral? Or was it always written and done by Day Ponies?” Midnight asked, his stance relaxing slightly.

“Well no,” The hesitation in her voice only spurring Midnight into believing he was in the right.

“So not only do none of these books contain the history that Princess Celestia had censored, but none of them were written by the tribes which experienced and lived that history?” Midnight replied, lowering his eyebrows in an imperious query.

“And how exactly are you so sure that what you’re telling me is even remotely true?” Twilight returned, “Ponies can end up mishearing, misremembering or even twisting things the longer stories are vocally shared and taught across the ages. The Fjorse mythologies being a prime example.” The mare began to sit on her haunches as she looked to pull out another book, levitating and opening it to the Thestral, showing depictions of one Fjorse “God”, “The Trickster Pony, specifically. There’s been so many stories about him that it’s ended up a complete mess to connect anything solid about him. As much as we’ve researched and studied about Fjorse mythology even before the Princesses’ reign, a lot of the Trickster Pony’s stories were either made by biased storytellers, left incomplete or both! We still don’t know his origins, what his role as a Fjorse God was, any connections to any other deities, and we don’t even know what kind of Pony he was!”

The book closed with a thump, coming over to sit in front of Twilight as she gave a soft glare at Midnight, who was busy hoof massaging his temples from the headache he was developing from dealing with Princess Celestia’s protege.
«««✧✦✧»»»

Needless to say, they were off to a very rocky start with Princess Luna’s project. And if Midnight hadn’t been scared of what she would do to him, the Thestral might’ve given into the temptation of abandoning the whole thing altogether and riding the train back to Canterlot. Alas, the haunted memory of nearly being thrown out of the Night Guard and his mother being informed of his dishonorable discharge resting within his shadows was a potent knife resting at the back of his neck, thus he had little choice but to endure the Day Pony.

And endure, he certainly would have to. Twilight possessed energy that surpassed him in terms of both focus and persistence. Even when the clock that sat between two bookshelves chimed midnight, even when her ability to stay cognizant deteriorated as time continued to progress. The mare was just seemingly inexhaustible in her quest of knowledge. There had been several moments where Midnight would look away from Twilight, his wings fidgeting, legs twitching and his body giving silent complaints in multiple areas. If there were any comparison, it was worse than the early morning parade shifts. Parade shifts at least granted rest after a four hour shift, while the patrolling guardsponies would be relieved after six hours. At least he was capable of getting a break to relieve himself in the bathroom, but Twilight would just follow and wait outside the door, continuing to pump him for more information.

At the very least, Twilight wasn’t impossibly inexhaustible. Despite her pestering about courtship practices or romantic relationship practices, and despite her mumbling objections about stopping for the night, it wasn’t until the little dragon began to pester the mare in return, using her hornwriting as a primary reason. The sprawling, increasingly illegible texts that Twilight had slowly become would prove difficult for the Princesses to understand or decipher, the little dragon had said to the mare, and it was more likely she would have to rewrite and redo everything she recorded.

With the thought of ‘disappointing the Princesses,’ Twilight conceded and brought their 'session’ to a blessed end, with nearly nine hours left in the night until the day would arrive.

While she hadn’t been afraid or terrified of him way back when he was tasked with bringing her to Princess Luna through the carriage, or seem as unease around him akin to many of the Day Ponies were after Midnight appeared and informed her about the Princess’ project, it wasn’t as comforting as it should’ve been, because by Luna's starry mane did this mare ever find sleep?

However, as Midnight allowed his thoughts to mull around while he pawed his hooves over his sandwich and ate a bite. The latter part of Twilight’s antics were ... somewhat a bit endearing. He wouldn’t go and say that her bubbly and eager attitude to learning something new was similar to a happy dog, but Twilight did have moments where she had the behavior of a little filly on her birthday, such as a big, genuine smile and excitedly clopping her hooves together in the pony expression of applause, and it was hard to not get caught up into her happiness. And there’s been a few moments that Midnight could honest to Luna call the mare adorable. Midnight slowly came to a stop, mid-chew. His eyes slowly widening as suspicion began to connect quite a few dots.

Princess Luna did indeed issue to him a mission intent on expanding general knowledge of the Thestrals and other nocturnal species in Equestria to the general populace, specifically to remove any and all leftover myths or horror stories to cause distrust or hold suspicious contempt against said nocturnals. Especially those left behind by the less than civil historical accounts of the Order of the Sun. Thestrals taken at the point of a weapon and ‘escorted,’ to wherever the Order or Church convened, to which many did not return. And too few of the Day Ponies spoke against the Order, for fear that they too would discover what happened under the Church’s hooves.

It wasn’t until now did Midnight start to suspect that Princess Luna was doing more than just encouraging this little outreach project and his interactions with Twilight. No, there was a growing suspicion that this was an attempt of Princess Luna to play matchmaker between Midnight, a Royal Thestral Prince, and Twilight Sparkle, the Royal Student of Princess Celestia.

‘Granted’ ... Midnight’s cheeks did give a little glow of red, his eyes lazily drifting over to the stairway, his thoughts lazily bringing up their first meeting, ‘I did leave an impression on the mare. I suppose whatever the Princess saw or heard from the student must have given her the thought the two of us would be interested ...’

The blush faded as the dream of Midnight’s strict mother returned to the forefront, and much akin to the commanding voice of a drill sergeant, reminded the stallion of the family demands and expectations over his affairs. This in turn made Midnight Wind list off what he knew and would meet ... perhaps be “acceptable” to said demands.

Twilight Sparkle, a daughter of a minor noble family and a Canterlotian... . That alone was a less than impressive start in the eyes of her mother and her high expectations for him, and he could almost hear her disappointment in him aiming low. However, Twilight is a personal and close student to Princess Celestia. And the primary reason as to how she became a personal student was because she had been born with incredible levels of magicka that started at a young age, magicka that was growing in greater strength to this very day, the Element of Magic likely being a mere enhancement or even a focus. Just that alone would practically reduce the downside of Twilight being a Canterlotian... . If he recalled correctly, she was also among five other mares who were responsible for the return of Princess Luna, and the return of the Thestral Courts into Canterlot. Adding on to the aforementioned fact that she was the Element Bearer of Magic itself, one of six virtues that had formerly been under the Princesses before the Night Rebellion...

That ... would certainly gain favor from his mother and her demanding expectations of finding a mate.

That said, thinking back upon such an accomplishment, how in Tartarus was Twilight not swarmed by suitors? Her antics could easily be overlooked by the more greedy and pompous nobles of both the Equestrian and Thestral courts. This was still a noblesmare who had become an Element Bearer, had incredible magicka strength, had performed the incredible feat of returning Princess Luna to Equestria and had personal contact and connections with Princess Celestia. Certainly, she could have had offers or flirts sent her way!

‘It’s possible that the Princesses and Sparkle’s family have been running interference.’ Midnight thought, taking a moment to look around and see if there was any sign of affections or anything that would’ve given an indication that somepony had caught her eyes, whether here in Ponyville or Canterlot. Photos, perhaps a misplaced letter? It would’ve made sense for her parents or the Princess herself to interfere with Twilight’s lovelife, since anypony marrying her would result in being in personal connection to the Princess as well as have a voice over the mare’s responsibilities with the Elements.

Midnight looked down at his unfinished and cold lunch, his thoughts slowly returning him to reality. The sound of birds chirping quickly brought reality to him, as his head moved swiftly to look at a nearby window, seeing the sky outside shine a dull blue. A slight twinge of exhaustion fell over the Thestral as he came to the realization that much of the night had been pondered away. His lunch now became a late dinner and if he left it alone much further, Midnight would have to throw it out and fix an entirely new meal.

A grimace spawned on his muzzle as Midnight began to scarf down the sandwich, the unpleasant lukewarm taste of the flowers, lettuce, cheese and slightly mayonnaise soaked bread assaulting his tongue and mouth. After finishing up and quickly fetching a glass of water to chase down the flavor, Midnight began to silently make his way up the stairs, avoiding any parts of the wooden floor that would creak and groan. Once up in the bedroom, Midnight opted to use his wings to fly up and stealthily glide over towards his bed.

It had taken some convincing, but the Thestral had been able to hash out a schedule with Twilight. Where he would sleep during much of the daytime until evening hours, which would be when the two ponies would continue their project until the closing hours of midnight... Or rather when Twilight was successfully convinced to get a good night's sleep... Mentioning her hornwriting being unreadable for the Princesses might be an effective method to shut down whatever excuse she might bring up.

As for the suspicions and concerns over Princess Luna acting like she’s a matchmaker... Give him a week, and maybe he could find something that would give both him and Twilight a reason to go a little further beyond being friends.

Author's Note

Ugh, I had hoped this was gonna arrive before New Years, but instead I kept running my head into a proverbial wall trying to get things in this chapter to work. Adding on multiple other events that happened during the holidays, and oh dear lord its already nearing February.

Oh btw, I got into DND. I'm a Swashy Entertainer Kobold (w/Dragon Roar+boom blade) that's trying to bring Opera into the world. So far my performance rolls are doing good numbers, even made one would-be bard npc wonder why Snom was a "Bard Dropout". Snom still wonders why every situation ends up with him being a sneak archer.

(And one MOOOORE thing!) This chapter was going to connect with Luna and Rising's little trip, however I've had to decide to split that for the next chapter and leave this as a worldbuilding moment, give people some attention and sight into Midnight. And oh boy did I go pretty dark. I suppose even with the magic of Friendship removing the Windigos, you still find unfriendly relations. Even if they aren't shown on the tv screen (seriously, we get two bat ponies shown on screen for an episode and they never show up again?)

Anyhoo, next chapter will be a dive into Rising's memories and see where he stores them all, as well as seeing what exactly gets Rising nervous about using magic! Give a comment if something's missed out, I'm still considering myself in the learning process.

This also just came to mind before I published, this wasn't made with a mindset into IRL politics. That's... a big something that I'd rather keep separate from the politics I'm making and creating in this story. So any similarities, whether persons, characteristics or opinions, were not an intentional connection between here and IRL.