The Knight In Black

by MrHouston

Chapter 1

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"It happened on a night, just like this one. Did I ever tell you that? The same night, weather, and even the same shack he left us in. The moon looking down upon us with the eyes of a worried parent. Its a subject that I don't bring up that much. Its something me and sister don't wish to for anyone about. She certainly doesn't want to speak of it, she was merely a child. I on the other hand, was just a infant."

The blackest of the night was unfamiliar to the princess of the night herself. It felt like a second home to her. Though, in her youth, the rotting wooden shack that was engulfed by the moonlight that shined behind it. Casting the dark shadow of it along the green colored grass. Making the shadow stretch across the earth, making the ruined wooden structure seem viable to live in again. Luna took a single hoof step inside, though it was small. The tip of her glass shoe coming down onto the dusty floor. The air she smelled was heavy with dust and the residue of whatever creature lived inside there before. It was a bed and breakfast for all kinds of animals by this point. More of her steps drummed the walls of the shack, echoing with an eerie silence besides the sound of the crickets outside. The air felt heavy of cold however.

Luna spoke only to herself, hoping for someone or even something to come along to listen to her tale. The memories she experienced from learning about this place. It was time where she barely had her eyes open and couldn't even walk yet. The years of her infancy are a blur to her eyes, but just looking around this empty shack was like looking at a life long photograph. The memory inside this shack was deep, and one of sorrow. A tomb meant for the deepest of souls. Unfortunately for her, this tomb's story was one she and Princess Celestia refused to forget. Luna walked through the shack until she came across the grayish bed in the corner with a single chair sitting in front of it. She stopped, and held her ground in front of the chair and small bed. The dust that coated the seat and blankets, preserving it and decomposing the wood and metal.

"I still don't know his name. Celestia refuses to speak of him or what he was. I cant say that I blame her, her dreams were enough of a lecture. A series of projections that speak more then any archive could image."

Her eyes looked over the lone chair, seeing at the scraps of the wood and the scratches of the back. The deeply stained black of the brown wood running down to the floor below. It was a sight she felt her heart drop into her stomach. Gore was an element Luna is not used to seeing in her lifetime, though from when she was Nightmare Moon her thoughts were different. The sight of pain ans suffering of others was a joy wherever she saw the agony of those that were effected by the never ending night. But those days were centuries ago.

"He died here. He didn't want Celestia to worry, but...I have a feeling she already knew. He was bleeding heavily and could barely stand. It was so cold that even sister needed the only blanket on the bed. Both her and I would've died if he hadn't suggested we take it. He was a fool for thinking he could withstand Equestrian winter. But...he did it for us."

Luna turned her head to see at the metal plague she and her sister had implanted in this little shack as a reminder to any who come there. A way for any to know about the most legendary warrior to ever be in Equestrian history books. The name bold in letters and size as a way to remember his name, what he was, and what he stood for. Luna slowly stepped toward the golden plague and traced her hoof over the rim of it. Her strong composer she had when walking in this place was already slim as it was. It wasn't easy for anyone to walk into this place. The feeling of the air was heavy with the deep sadness and worry that engulfed it a thousand years ago. It is a feeling that would make any parent hold there child out of pure happiness of holding them close to their bodies. Streams of light blue liquid washed down the blue cheeks of the princess as she touched it. Sudden flashes of what she saw in her sisters dreams had transferred to her. The image of the him smiling down to her infant face as he pulled over his metal face mask for the last time before sitting in the same wooden chair behind her. And slowly passing away.

She remembered the noise of clanking metal armor and shouting as the wooden door at the entrance was battered down to pieces, hence why no door is there to this day. The rest was a blur mostly. Her tiny mind filtering out the event like trash in a home. Though sometimes she hated to forget anything about it. A tear wiped away from her cheek, Luna turned to walk out the door before setting a small potted plant by the entrance. A small remembrance of the heroes identity. The sapphire eyes then broke away from the plant and gazed upon the moon in the sky. It was funny how events had changed but more stayed the same. The same moon, and the same shack. But a different night, and a different year.

Luna left the homemade shrine and soon flew toward the skyward castle of Canterlot. With a gentle grace, she landed in her room with the balcony doors open and trotted toward a desk in the far corner of the chamber. Using her magic, which shined with sparkling stars, lifted the wooden chair beside her desk and sat herself upon it. A small quill pen floated up from the ink cup next to it and dipped itself in blackness. It glided its way toward Luna and floated slightly above a sheet of paper. The instrument then began to slowly glide and skeet across the sheet. Cursive letters being formed from each scratch of the quill against it. In the boldest of all the letters, it read on the tier top of the paper.

"This is his tale."