Life Through Banished Eyes
Every now and again, there comes a pony who has a sense of self entitlement about them, assuming that they are supreme compared to all other ponies, even our lovely princesses. They roam Equestria, spreading fables of their 'adventures' of defeating Discord or even Nightmare moon. Most ponies are able to see past the lies they spread through their teeth, and notice that what they say is most often the re-spun tale of something the Elements of Harmony had done. They even boast of their amazing talents, some of which make no sense to anypony. Epic sniping accuracy, with a .50 Caliber rifle bullet on their flank, whatever that is. Even more outrageous, there are even those who claim to have more of a... voyeuristic talent. No pony has ever gone and cheated on their significant other, and these ponies claim that they could charm anypony they wanted. And lets just say that love wasn't necessarily what they wanted. And that is just the beginning of what they claim to do, but that isn't why we're here.
These ponies don't have a place in Equestrian society, and punishing them in the dungeons is too harsh for what they do. And as for exiling to the borderlands, that is far too cruel for anypony to endure. In an attempt to let them lead out some sort of... normal life, the Princess of the Sun, Celestia, and the Princess of the Moon, Luna, came together to create a world other than ours. It resembles everything we know, detail for detail, but there is one key difference – there are none of us 'normal' ponies there. It is a world ruled by surrogates of our own Princesses, but is filled with these ponies who would be a nuisance to our society. They live there virtually in peace, outrageous talents pinned against other outrageous talents.
Most of the ponies in Equestria don't notice these nuisances, they are often sent away before they can do much of any damage to society. They always go without a fight, claiming that this world isn't good enough for them. They disappear into the Alternate Equestria, or AE as the Princess often refer to it in a loose code. Many times, these ponies are never heard from again. They leave, and never make another attempt to get back to the 'real' world. They don't see their imprisonment as a bad thing, but rather a chance to escape from the stupidity of what reality had to offer them. And for some reason, they actually enjoy being around all of the other crude, obnoxious, and those oblivious to the faults that sent them to AE. This is how it happens for most of these ponies, they get to AE and enjoy the fights over who is better. They like to duel out who is a better fighter with imaginary weapons. But there is one exception, and his name is Dark Haunter.
Dark Haunter was a normal pony at one time, but he changed over the years. He had no family, or any relatives he could remember. He was 'born' an alicorn with a black coat, striped red. There has ever rarely been a pony born black, or even with bold red stripes as he had. Not only that, he claimed to be an alicorn. In truth however, all his wings were another spell that he had somehow learned, granting him the appearance of wings and allowing flight. How he managed to get the color of his coat to be black, and even with red stripes, is somewhat of a mystery. The Princesses have an idea on how he may have managed it, but they do not dare to try and re-create how, for they believe that the process in which he may have made himself the way he is was extremely painful. Aside from the ways that he could have made himself the color he was, there was his talent.
He claimed to have a less than useful talent, and for that matter it was one that many ponies would have frowned upon, and even been disgusted by. The talent he claimed to have was one of assassination, being able to kill ponies in an instant, without alerting anypony to his presence. Not only was it a rather useless talent in a land that frowned upon killing any sort of creature, and to kill another pony? That was just unheard of. As for Dark, this is where his story both starts and ends.
Canterlot was one of the few places in Equestria where the Royal Court sessions were held. These sessions were held by the two Princesses, Luna and Celestia, and any decisions made during these sessions were final. Usually, these court sessions were held in the Throne room in which the Princesses sound proofed, frosted the glass windows to prevent ponies from watching in, and sealed the room from any exterior magic. The use of the Royal Court was something that usually only gets used in the most extreme of situations, this being one of them.
Dark Haunter sat in front of the two Celestial Princesses, their crowns glimmering in the mid-morning light that flowed through the frosted windows. They towered over him, sitting in their own respective chairs; Luna's etched with a crescent moon, and Celestia's eloquently painted with a bright sun. Celestia sighed heavily, court wasn't something that she enjoyed attending, especially if it meant sending somepony away. But sometimes things had to be done, and she would have to be the one to do it. Ponies, like the one sitting in front of her, were always there. It was just a matter of time before they would be found, and would be exiled to AE. The strangest thing though, is that they had only started to pop up here and there after she had banished Luna, who was Nightmare Moon at the time, to the prison of the moon. It was a strange coincidence, but she could find no feasible connections.
Luna glared down sternly at the pony who sat in the middle of the room, her mind reeling over what could cause anypony to act the way that these always did. The superiority complex that each of them had was no different from the next, but they were all different in some way. One could be shallow, and another could have some strange reasoning to give method to their actions. Either way, she knew what had to be done. Darting her eyes over to her sister, she felt a pang of guilt in her heart. It was always Celestia who had to be the one to give the order, and she knew that each pony she sent away put another weight on her heart. And frankly, she didn't know how much more weight her sisters heart could take from the thousands of years of rule before she finally broke down. Then again, she was always the strong one, Luna thought to herself. But this time, I must make the ruling, even if she would prefer me not to.
“You sit here before us, Dark Haunter. Are you aware of why you are here?” Luna started.
“Of course I know why,” He replied sarcastically. “You want to make me the king of Equestria, relinquish your spot as the Princesses, and be my maids. Sound about right?”
Luna glanced over at her sister, who's mouth hung slightly open, surprised by the shear amount of superiority that this pony thought he had. It was purely astounding that this pony could be so rude, she had met rude ponies before, but this definitely took the cake.
“Dark Haunter, that is no way to address your Princess Luna,” Celestia called out. “You are here because you are a danger to our very society, claiming to kill my little ponies. Do you admit to this?”
“Of course I do, My cutie mark is a dagger,” he said with annoyance. “I am an assassin after all. So when can I leave? This is getting pretty damned boring.”
“You, are not leaving Dark Haunter. In fact, you –”
“Are going to be exiled into a world other than our own, for the safety of our little ponies,” Luna interrupted. “This is for the good of all ponies, and we hope that you shall learn the lessons of love, kindness, and tolerance. This is for the better, even though we do not wish to do this.”
“Hah! You two can't do anything to me! I am the GREATEST pony to ever live –”
Celestia and Luna Faced each other, their horns coming together at the tips. A small orb of pure white light began to form, slowly growing larger and brighter. The expansion of this orb began to accelerate exponentially, and now Dark actually began to fear something. He stumbled up, running backwards and tripping over his own hooves. The light started to flow over his extremities as they went numb. The orb engulfed his entire body, slipping him into a comatose state.
Dark Haunter awoke sometime later surrounded by a soft and almost rubbery material. It was fairly dark wherever he was, but there was light coming from the other side of the room. He clambered to his hooves, but fell over as he was too weak to even stand. Crawling to the source of the light, it became more apparent that he was in some sort of cell. The window in which the light flowed through was barred off. He glanced around the room, hoping to see some sort of way out. And with his new found luck, there was nothing. Grasping the wall as a support, he pulled himself up to the small barred window. Looking out, there was something he never expected, something that voiced him of the uniqueness he once thought he had.
Outside, there stood a vast crowd of ponies ranging from the brightest blues to the deepest reds; whispering to one another as they stared at the window that Dark Haunter peered through.
