A Day Without Light

I appeared in a flash of light, and immediately had to shield my eyes using some black magic.  I looked ahead and saw the moon on the horizon.  As I turned around however, I saw a bright light, that looked like it could burn the land.  This must be the sun.  Another peculiar thing that I noticed was the sky, it was... blue?  Weird.  I looked around me and saw a large saddlebag that was probably filled with food and water, as well as some essential camping supplies.  After picking up the saddlebag and fastening it, I started walking towards the sun.

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I have been walking for a few hours and the sun is now slightly higher in the sky.  I had already eaten one of the apples and drank roughly half of a canteen of water.  It was also very hot.  I took a small break and started walking again.  In the distance I could see what looked like a small town.  However as I got closer, I could see that it was what looked like a border crossing.  Inside one of the shacks, there was what looked like a few guards wearing golden armor.  As soon as he saw me he grabbed a spear and ran towards me.

"Halt, in the name of the law." He quickly said as he approached.  "What are you doing here?"  It looked like he was almost afraid, like he had never seen a pony that looked like me before.

"Hello, i'm on a journey to this land."  I said with a happiness in my voice.

"Well your not allowed to continue.  Turn around, darkspawn."  He said with an almost threatening tone in his voice.

"Darkspawn?"  I ask quickly, wondering what he meant.  "I don't know what you mean by that."

"Turn around Darkspawn, or I will be forced to take action."  At this he lowered his spear and pointed it at me.  He looked like he didn't want to do it, but he looked like he could if he had to.

"Woah, I don't want a fight.  I'm just here on a mission from my princess."

"Then i'm sorry, but you must not be allowed to continue."  As he said this he charged at me.  I quickly dodged to the left and shot a bolt of dark magic at him, knocking him unconscious.  Well that wasn't to hard.

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I kept on walking for a few more hours, and the sun went visibly higher into the sky.  In the distance, I saw another town, but this time I approached the town sneakily.  Hiding in the nearby forest and making my way through the orchard of apple trees.  I watched some other ponies in the town and noticed that all their coats were lighter colors.  Realizing that I would stand out, I cast a quick illusion spell and walked into the town.  No pony seemed to notice me and I looked for an inn.

I was stopped by a pink blur that nearly knocked me through a wall.  I prepared myself for an attack, but none came.  I stood my ground and looked around, trying to see where the next attack would come from.  "HI THERE!"  I almost dropped my illusion spell I was so startled.  Standing in front of me was a pink pony that looked like it could hug me to death.  "My name is pinkie pie!  Whats yours?"  She said this with an almost obsessive interest.

"My name is Dusk, I'm looking to have a meeting with Princess Celestia."

"OOH, you want to meet with the princess, then you had better talk with Twilight Sparkle, she is our towns librarian."

I smiled and walked away.  "Thank you Pinkie Pie."  I continue walking into the town and realize that I forgot to ask where the library was.  After another half an hour of stumbling around, I get fed up enough to ask someone.  "Hey do you know where the library is?"  I ask the purple unicorn standing in front of me.

"Sure, I live there, follow me."  She starts walking towards a tree house.  I chuckle at this, and she looks in my direction.   "You have never seen a tree used as a building before?"  She asks, I answer with a shake of my head.  "Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself.  My name is Twilight Sparkle, whats yours?"  Why was every pony in this town so friendly?  I ask myself as we continue on.

"My name is Dusk, its nice to meet you Twilight.  However, I was wondering if you could help organize a meeting with the Princess.  A small pink pony told me you could."  At this she laughs.

"You must have already met Pinkie Pie then."  I nod my head.  "She is very energetic, but you get used to it."

As we walk into the library I take a chance to look around.  It was quite nice I must admit, even though it was not nearly one hundredth of the size of the Academy's.  "I just have one question to ask you Dusk.  Why are you surrounded by Black Magic?"  She says this with venom in her voice, almost as if I was a blight upon this land.

"Why whatever do you mean Twilight?"  I ask innocently, hoping that she would think it was coming from another source.  "I don't have any Idea what you are talking about."

At this, Twilight's eye twitches.  "I think you know exactly what I mean."

I just smile at her.  "I seriously have no idea what you are talking about.  You must have picked it up off some other pony in town."

"Oh, of course.  Just let me cast a simple spell to make sure you are not the source of the magic."  Her horn glows for a second and I feel my illusion drop.  "HA!  I knew it was coming from you."  She starts readying a spell.

"WAIT!"  Too late, I get blasted through a window and out into the courtyard.  I stand up and try to cast a spell, but all my magic is being blocked.

Twilight walks through the door and looks at me.  "Rainbow!"  I look into the sky to see a pegasus with a rainbow mane stop in the air.  "Nuke him!"  The pegasus looks like she salutes and starts accelerating towards me.  I keep trying to cast a spell but it feels like my magic was being held down.  I start running while trying to cast that shield spell Luna taught me.  I was able to overpower her magic for a second, and threw up the shield right before the pegasus hit me.  The world outside of the shield looked like it was enveloped in a rainbow explosion.  The shield holds and as the dust clears, I see everypony looking at me with shock on their faces.

"Hi, my name is Dusk.  I would appreciate it if you didn't do that again please."  Twilight walks up to my shield and tries to get rid of it, to no avail.  "Hi Twilight, that was not very nice you know."   Twilight gives me a blank look.  "Umm, Twilight are you ok?"  Twilight seems to snap out of it after that.

"Bu-how did you do that?"  Twilight seemed to once again be in a daze.  "That shield was alicorn magic."  I give her a questioning look at that.

"Umm, know its not Twilight.  Did you get hit in the head by a rock after that explosion?"  I look at her and it seems like not a hair on her body is out of place.  "That was black magic."  I say to her in an almost childish voice.

As the smoke continues to clear, more of the townsfolk come out and look at me.  Including one rainbow maned pegasus who looks quite angry at me.  "What do you think your doing in Ponyville Darkspawn!"  She shouts loudly at me, almost as if she was trying to verbally attack me.  "Your kind isn't welcome here."

"Why are you calling me Darkspawn?  Does that not give me the right to call you... Something else?"  I was never good with insults, so I just left it at that.  "I walk into this town, trying to be friendly and peaceful, but no.  I have to get launched out a window and almost blown to smithereens before we can talk peacefully."  I say this ending with an almost snooty accent, which causes a laugh from Pinkie Pie.  "All I wanted was a meeting with the princess.  Not a bloodbath."  Even though It may have not actually been a bloodbath, I think that I got my point across.  "Well since this town is just so rude ill just wait in that forest for an apology."  I dissapear into the shadows and teleport to the edge of the forest.

The forest was nice and dark once you got inside of it.  And it reminded me of home.  I sigh, wishing that I could go back to the academy, with their sandwiches and their salads.  I hear a rumble coming from my stomach at that.  I should probably stop thinking about it.  "Hello, would you care to partake in some fine wines or cheeses?"  I fall out of the tree i'm in as I hear a voice right behind me.  "Oh, i'm terribly sorry.  Did I spook you?"  I look to my left and see a bipedal creature with a teapot for his head.  "It appears you are in quite a pickle, i'm sure that some wine would calm you down."

"I don't want any of your wine, though some cheese would be nice."  A cart appears from a small shadow on the ground and a cart rolls out.

He pulls out one large cheese wedge, and hands it to me.  "That will be 3 bits."  I hand the money to him and decide to take a closer look at his features.  He is roughly six feet tall and appears to be wearing a very nice suit and a tie.  The teapot  on his head appears to be made from some high quality porcelain.  "Thank you for your business, and remember if you need cheese or wine, ill be there."  He walks into a shadow and dissapears into the shadows, his cart following behind him.

I climb back to my branch on the tree and start eating my cheese.  OMNOMNOM, this cheese is good.  I finish it and lay down in my tree.

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"Hello!  Mister Dusk?"  I wake up and look around, sure enough I see Twilight and a group of five others walking besides her.  "We wanted to say something."  I hop out of my tree and land right behind them.

"Hello!"  I yell loudly, causing all of them to jump into the air.  "Have you come to apologize?"  I ask them.

"Hi Dusk."  Twilight says quietly, almost as if she was ashamed of what she did.  Which made me happy.  "We are sorry about what we did back in town.  We didn't know you came in peace."

"Oh yes, because walking into your town and asking for a meeting with the princess is so threatening."  My sarcastic tone seems to annoy the yellow pegasus hiding in a bush.  "Your lucky I don't hold grudges."

"Well, ill be happy to organize a meeting if you follow me into the town."  I nod and start walking behind her.  "Just make sure you don't get seen by anypony.  It could cause a panic... again."

"Don't worry, ill just teleport us to the library."  As I say this I start surrounding us in shadows.  I cast a simple shadow walking spell and bring us to the library.  "Here we are, thank you for using Dusk transit."  They simply stood there with a stunned expression on their faces.  "What?"  I quickly ask, wondering what I did wrong.

"If you want to fit in, then you need to stop using all that black magic."  Twilight quickly explains.  Obviously she hadn't told her friends, because as soon as she said that, I was bucked into next year.  Or in common terms, I couldn't feel my face.

"Ow."  I say before standing up.  Everpony in the room just looks at me.  "That hurt."  I say plainly, almost like a machine stating a fact.

"How are you still on four hooves?  No pony has ever withstood a buck from Applejack."  I look to my left and see the farmpony looking at me with fear on her face.  "And i'm sorry that I didn't tell my friends about your black magic.  Maybe if I did this whole situation could have been avoided."  Twilight looks to the floor with an embarrassed look on her face.  We sit around for a while, trying not to look into each others eyes, before Twilight speaks up.  "Well, I had better send that letter to the princess.  She will want to meet you."  Twilight seems to look around for something before sighing.  "Spike, take a note please."  At this, what appears to be a small dragon appears by her side.  Almost like that was his sole purpose in life.

"Sure thing Twilight."  He glances in my direction before gulping and looking back to her.  "What do you want it to say?"

"Dear Princess Celestia,  A Darkspawn by the name of Dusk would like to meet you.  Also, would you care to make me your student again?... Please?  Your once faithful student: Twilight Sparkle."  Everyone around her gasps at that.

"Twilight, when did you stop being her student?"  The white unicorn from earlier asks.  "And why didn't you tell us?"  She says this with a stern voice, like she wasn't going to leave without an answer.

"Well, a few months ago, I found a book in the archives detailing some strange spells and ideas.  I started reading it and tried some of the spells, but in the end it caught some of canterlot on fire.  I was exiled, but I managed to hide myself here, knowing that she wouldn't risk hurting any other pony in the town."  It sounded like she was hiding something, but I couldn't figure out what.  "That's why I am here.  The princess still comes to see me sometimes, however she always seems to be on her guard from me."  A tear appears in her eye, and she starts having trouble speaking.  "I will always remember that day, the day my life ended."  At this, she bursts into tears and starts openly sobbing on the floor.

"No matter what you did hon, we will always be your friends."  Applejack says.  Everypony else in the room nods and agrees with her.

"Thank you,"  Twilight whispers so quietly that only due to chance, am I able to hear it.  "Spike, send the letter."  Spike breathes a small flame and the letter dissapears into  a cloud of smoke.  "It should only be a minute."  Spike burps up another letter and reads it out.  "The answer is still no Twilight, but prepare for teleport."  We dissapear in a flash of light.

As soon as we land in what appears to be the grand hall of the castle, we are surrounded by guards.  A large flare goes up into the air and hovers above us.  "FLASH!"  I quickly yell before falling to the floor with my eyes closed and head down.  It bursts into a flash of light and blinds the other ponies with me.  I stand up and look at the guards around me.  They appear to be unfazed by the light, so I quickly throw up a shield and cover my friends in it.

"Stop."  A commanding voice from behind me says.  I look and see a white alicorn flanked by a royal guard and a sky blue unicorn that was probably my age.  "I order you to drop you shield, if you do not, we will attack you."  Knowing full well that my shield could not stand up to an alicorn, I let it fall.  I quickly have spears pointed at me by the other guards.

"What do you want Darkspawn?"  Shouts the unicorn on her left.  "Are you a scout?"  She asks questioningly.

I attempt to respond, but the guards had gagged me.  "MmPH Amph frumph."

"Let him speak."  Celestia says.

They remove the gag and allow me to speak.  "Thank you."  I say in an annoyed voice.  "I am here because I wish to know more about your land."  I answer matter of factly.  "Is that so much to ask for?  Also, the princess says that she is sorry, Tyrant."  At this the guards around me lower there spears more and there was an audibly gasp heard from around the room.

"Why are you calling her the tyrant.  If its anyone that needs to be called a tyrant, its Nightmare."  The blue unicorn defends her princess.  "She tried to bring everlasting night to our kingdom.  We would have died if she had."

"Would you have?"  I ask,  "I don't think you would have.  Our people live fine with no sun.  We grow crops and maintain a temperate temperature."  I start raising my voice.  "If anyone deserves to be called a tyrant, its Celestia.  She banished her sister for asking if she could raise the moon for a whole day.  She didn't do anything wrong other than ask.  Why do you hate her so!?"  At this point, I am yelling.  The rest of the room starts backing away as, unknown to me, my eyes started sucking the light out of the room.  "WHAT HAS SHE DONE WRONG?!"  A black lightning bolt flies out of my horn, and hits one of the guards.  It then sparks to the other.  A smell of burnt fur and flesh fills the room.  "WHY?!"  The room is nearly pitch black at this point, the only light coming from Celestias horn.  "Why?"  I start calming down, and a tear appears in my eye.  I finally regained control of my magic and stopped.

Twilight approaches me, "You should probably leave."  She says quickly.

"Come with me, you are not wanted here either.  I'm sure Luna would accept you."  I say this sincerely, hoping that she will be able to find a home amongst my people.  "You will not be criticized for what you have done here.  And, your coat leads you to a life in the midnight Castle."

"I'll come with you, but I can't promise I will stay."  She says this nervously, probably nervous about leaving the land she has lived in for years behind.

I quickly teleport us to the academy, using up all of my remaining magical stores.  As my vision starts fading, I see princess Luna and the other students running towards me.  It appears that I landed in the great hall.  Meh, good enough.

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