Prologue: New Faces, Familiar Places
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
"Auuugh.."
Midnight Lancer awoke slowly, the horrible beeping of his alarm clock dragging him tooth and hoof from a rather lovely dream he was having. He clung to the fragments of his paradise stubbornly, but the blaring of that infernal machine tore them from him bit by bit, eventually breaking the will of the stallion.
One eye opened, followed shortly by the other, their gaze fixed on the window of his apartment. It hung open, the faint sounds of the bustling ponies below reminding him that it was yet another day in the busiest city in Equestria. With another groan, Midnight sat up in his bed and slammed a hoof against the top of his clock. The abuse, thankfully, shut it up for the time being. Glancing over to his defeated foe, the pegasus froze as he registered the time on its scuffed faceplate.
"Shit, I'm late!"
Any semblance of tiredness immediately disappeared, replaced instead with the dread of missing orientation for a second time. He was a Sophomore this year, and the last thing he wanted was a repeat of last year's debacle.
Not wasting any more time, the pony shoved his blanket off of him before scrambling out of bed and blasting through his morning routine. With a speed nearly rivaling that of a Wonderbolt, Midnight dove through his shower, shoved some toast into his muzzle and fitted his uniform as best as he could before flying out his window in panic.
Down at street level, several ponies paused as they watched the pegasus shoot out of the tenth story window and dive towards the pavement. Some gasped at the sight, the stallion picking up frightening speed as he passed floor after floor, his wings tight against his frame. Just as it seemed he was about to become a pancake in the middle of the road, Midnight unfurled his wings and redirected his course to shoot down the avenue, only just passing above the tops of table umbrellas and taxis with a mighty gust.
A chuckle escaped Midnight as his wings beat hard against the air, relishing in the audience that followed his daring dive from the window. Muttering under his breath with an air of satisfaction, "You still got it Midnight, you’ll be a pro in no time!" His thought was interrupted by a rather large yawn escaping his muzzle, "Just gotta fix that sleep schedule.."
Below him, the sprawling metropolis of Manehattan was truly living up to its title as the Big Apple, with every inch of it bustling with expected activity. Lining the streets and roofs of smaller buildings were countless cafes and shops, packed to the brim with ponies chatting about the newest gossip or emerging fashion trends over morning coffee. Earth ponies lugged huge piles of concrete to the many potholes caused by the swarm of taxis, while pegasi dotted the towering skyline as they cleaned windows and delivered mail. Unicorn policeponies maintained order at each chaotic intersection, their magic helping keep up with the sign work and whistling needed to tame the mob of commuters.
His white and blue uniform glistened in the morning sunlight like a beacon above the chaos going on down below. Midnight could've sworn a policecolt had yelled at him to stop after he nearly crashed snout-first into a fruit stand, but the earth pony had no hope in Tartarus of catching a pegasus mid-flight.
After what felt like an eternity, the stallion smiled as his prize appeared. Just a couple streets ahead lay the entrance to Manehattan Technical University, the last of the schoolponies seemingly making their way through the oversized golden gates and towards the main hall. With a final burst of energy, Midnight pressed on towards his goal, flapping harder and harder as he zeroed in for landing just past the finish line.
"Almost.. just like you've practiced.."
Just as he passed those grandiose gates to the university grounds, a pink pegasus landed in front of him, completely unaware of the blue bullet rocketing towards her. With a sudden gasp and wings flaring to act as air brakes, he reacted the only way he could with so little time.
"Moooovveee!!"
Crash!
In the blink of an eye, black and blue merged with purple and pink as the high velocity stallion impacted the poor, innocent mare. Her saddlebags were immediately thrown from her as the pair crumpled into each other, papers and colorful feathers flying all over the place. As the dust settled, a groan escaped Midnight first, his mind fighting hard to stop everything from spinning.
Midnight would find his wobbly gaze upon the pony he had flattened and immediately panicked. Stumbling to his hooves as best he could, he grabbed the mare and tried to pull her back up, "Sweet Celestia! Are you alright!?"
"Whuh.. Huh?.." was the only response to escape the mare as she was dragged back to her hooves, her own world a swirly mess.
Midnight coughed awkwardly as the seconds ticked by, the mare seemingly stuck staring at him after he had helped her up. "Are.. are you okay, miss?" Tilting his head, he began to wonder if crashing into the pony had injured her.
She blinked slowly.
After a lack of response, he nervously laughed and turned towards the piles of papers strewn about the sidewalk. "Oh, here, let me help you get these. It's the least I can do after bumping into you like that!"
Quickly moving thanks to his wings, Midnight worked around the mare, grabbing a large portion of the papers and haphazardly stacking them together. By this point, the pink pegasus had snapped out of her strange state and had begun re-securing her saddlebags to her flanks, still eyeing the colt as he collected her admission paperwork.
After a few moments, Midnight presented the sloppily collected papers to her with a smile, huffing and puffing slightly. "Sorry about that again. My name's Midnight Lancer, what's yours?"
There was a short pause as the mare tilted her head at his question, grabbing the papers from the stallion and doing her best to organize them before slipping the pile back into her bags, "I'm.. uh.. Peach Harvest.."
The reply was shorter and less enthusiastic than Midnight had hoped for. Maybe it was the fact he had torpedoed her just moments ago, maybe she was holding back anger or maybe she was just new to Manehattan. After all, she didn't look like a city pony, really.
While waiting for her to continue, Midnight took a moment to size up the mare in front of him. Her fur was a creamy peach color, and her short, fluffy mane was a two tone mixture of purple and sky blue. Sitting behind her mane was a bright blue bow, nearly as bright as his own mane. The saddlebags that were now firmly tied down to her body were clearly an original design, stenciled with the abbreviation: 'P.H.', alongside a little heart.
Midnight raised his eyebrow as he took in her apparel. No city pony would wear something so special around Manehattan of all places, such things were likely to get lost or, Celestia forbid, stolen in the chaos of daily life here. Everything about this pony, from her quiet nature to her attire, screamed small town pony.
His thoughts were interrupted as Peach Harvest cleared her throat, muttering to Midnight. "Uhm.. Thanks for helping me grab those papers, Mister Midnight. I was looking for Admissions, sorry if I got in the way.."
Midnight perked up as she regained his attention and immediately tried to reassure the pony. "No, no! It was my fault for not paying more attention, Miss Harvest. Honest! Sorry for making your first impression of MTU so.. violent.. hah.."
Another nervous chuckle found its way out of the pegasus as he turned towards the main hall that he had fought so hard to reach earlier. He was absolutely late by this point, that much he knew, the stallion just hoped he could get in without being reprimanded too harshly for it.
Deciding not to waste any more of the mare's time, much less his own that he was now in the negative with, Midnight turned and smiled one last time at the pink pegasus. "Hey, I gotta run before Sophomore Orientation starts, but Admissions is just inside the main doors there, you can't miss it! See you around!" Just like that, he dashed off towards the building, leaving Peach Harvest standing there to watch him as he left.
Peach, for her part, said nothing as the stallion galloped away. Normally, she'd simply roll her eyes and keep walking towards the hall after being bumped like that, but a strange feeling forced her to stand there and watch Midnight as he disappeared through the doors. Something about that stallion was different. Was it him helping her with her papers, that warm smile or maybe his strangely soft looking coat?
She didn't know, but as she began to walk towards the doors the stallion had bolted through, one thing was certain.
She'd absolutely see him again.
Peach Harvest smiled.
Author's Note
Thank you for taking a look at the intro to my little story! Please feel free to leave feedback about where I can improve and what you'd like to see. I'll be updating the chapters on a bit of a casual basis, as I'm new to this, but I'll try to stay consistent!
Ponies moseyed about MTU's campus library as the late autumn sun blazed overhead. The library had quickly become a popular spot for students looking to escape the remnants of summer, with air conditioners providing a refreshing breeze for the beleaguered ponies. Students roamed the many aisles, the old wooden bookshelves holding countless tomes of knowledge, adventure and mystery amongst their musty, aged confines. Afternoon light peaked in along the angled windows, projecting the sun's warm glow against the ceiling and letting it cascade about the reading area. By all regards, everypony seemed to be enjoying their time in the quiet, cool refuge.
"This sucks."
Well, except for one stallion.
Frustration oozed off of Midnight Lancer as he slid yet another book into an old, dusty shelf. At this rate, the pegasus was sure he was going to die in this library, never seeing the light of day again beneath this mountain of literature. 'History of the Crystal Empire' slid right into its place without incident, though Midnight couldn't for the life of him find where in Tartarus 'Daring Do and the Forbidden City of Clouds' was supposed to go.
A groan slipped from his muzzle, his hoof slamming the top of the cart, "What are you even doing here, does anypony know how to organize these carts?.."
After a moment of trying and failing to find the adventure fiction section, the defeated pegasus chucked it into the bottom of the cart and sighed, "Hopefully Crystal is having better luck with that assignment, cuz I'm about ready to start shredding these dumb books.."
His complaints were interrupted as an unknown hoof tapped his shoulder, speaking softly, "Midnight?"
"Sweet Celestia!!"
It was a good thing the librarian was out at the moment, or Midnight would be positive he'd be cracked over the head for shouting so loud. Whirling around, the panicked pegasus met eyes with none other than his new friend, Peach Harvest.
Said mare had jumped back in surprise at Midnight's reaction, her wings flared defensively in case he felt like throwing a book at her, "Jeez, Midnight! What's gotten into you?!"
His pounding heart slowly began to relax as Peach shot back her remark, "Oh thank goodness, it's just you. Don't sneak up on me like that, Peach! I startle easily.."
A small grin found its way onto her own face at that, sticking her tongue out at the stallion, "Shouldn't have told me that, Wondercolt, I'll just have to do it more now!"
Midnight rolled his eyes, grabbing another book from the cart and scanning the shelf as he talked to the shorter mare, "What are you doing here, anyway? Just come to spook me?"
"Actually, I was looking for a book on irrigation methods for class. What are you up to? I didn't think you'd be stuck helping out at the library with all that bluster about flying," the mare questioned, seemingly surprised to see a pony like him bothering to hang around so many books.
"Ah.. there we go.." he mumbled as the book's home was spotted. Turning back to Peach, Midnight shook his head, "Not really, I'm doing it to help out a friend," his eyes seemed to dip a bit from her gaze as he finished.
Peach tilted her head at his response. It was clear to her that he wasn't telling the truth, his lack of eye contact gave it away, but she would worry about that later. She had been waiting forever at this point, "Awwe, that's really nice of you! Why don't you take a break for now since that cart's finally empty?"
"It is?" Midnight cocked his own head before turning to the cart. Sure enough, the upper side was totally empty, while the only book underneath was that same Daring Do adventure. "Huh.. Wait, finally?"
Peach wasted no time making her move, grabbing her friend's hoof and looking at him with puppy dog eyes, "Come on, Midnight, just a little bit? There's a really nice spot in the corner that's super cozy!"
There was no defense for the poor colt against such an onslaught, her adorable face causing Midnight to blush and look away once more, "Alright, alright, we can hang out for a bit, okay? J-just don't look at me like that, it's not fair.."
With a smile that could rival a filly on Hearth's Warming Eve, the mare pulled the larger stallion along with shocking ease towards a quiet spot away from most other ponies in the library. Her strength caught Midnight off guard, himself amazed that such a soft mare could have that much muscle within her tiny frame.
Huh.. Looks like farm work does more to you than I thought.
Approaching the nook, Peach took a seat on a couch positioned against the wall. Using that strong hoof, she yanked Midnight down next to her with ease. Pulling her saddlebags off and setting them down on the table, Peach sighed as she relaxed into the soft fabric.
"So! How's your day, Midnight? Pretty surprising to see you helping out at the library, I figured you'd be more interested in flying around the track," mused the mare as she sunk into the couch.
"Normally I would be.. but I needed some help with Flight Dynamics, so I'm stuck here sorting while Crystal helps me out. I'd kill to be back out there, getting my time in and working up a sweat. A Wonderbolt doesn't sit around reading books all day, you know?" Midnight sagged a bit into the couch as well, the frustration in his voice thick as he shuffled his hooves along the floor.
The mare sitting next to him snickered a little bit, tapping his hoof softly, "You know, you've got a looong way to go before you're a bolt, Midnight. What's got you stumped in class, anyway?"
With a groan, Midnight leaned forward and set his own saddlebag onto the table before slipping out a few of his latest assignments, "It's the stupid math. I'm no good with equations and Flight Dynamics is packed with them!"
Peach paused as she read through the assignment carefully. To her surprise, the content was shockingly similar to her regular math course, just with the additions of things like trajectories and similar concepts that could be integrated into aerobatics.
After a few moments, Peach smiled and giggled a bit, "This stuff doesn't seem that bad, I could probably help you with it if you'd like!"
Midnight brought a hoof up to his muzzle as he thought for a moment, his eyes scanning the assignment with trepidation. Turning back to his friend, he smiled, "Alright, sure, we can give it a shot. Maybe it'll go better than when Crystal does, plus I won't have to sort books anymore!"
Peach Harvest groaned as Midnight slumped his head onto the table in defeat. They had been at this for hours now and had made essentially no progress. Every time she thought she had gotten through to her friend, he ended up looping back to some prior confusion and getting stuck.
Midnight mumbled from the table to the mare, "I'm telling you, it's hopeless.. This stuff makes absolutely no sense.. It'd just be easier to let Crystal do them.."
Peach lightly bonked her hoof against the top of Midnight's head, clearly unimpressed with the remark, "That's quitter talk, Midnight! This stuff's important, especially if you're going to continue on to the Academy. You won't stand a chance at getting in if you can't pass simple math courses."
Her admonishment and bonking was met with a disgruntled groan, "I don't know, Peach, you don't really need to be book smart to fly. I mean, look at Rainbow Dash! She's like, the fastest pony ever, and she's not really known for her critical thinking skills."
"That's what you think, flycolt. These concepts are exactly why Spitfire and the others are able to do all those crazy stunts. If they all just winged it like you do, they'd probably be dead by now," Peach scoffed, rolling her eyes.
This was starting to annoy Midnight, who harrumphed as he sat back up, "What would you know anyway? You've spent your life on a farm picking fruit all day, do you even use your wings outside of reaching tree tops?"
A soft chuckle escaped Peach Harvest as she shook her hoof dismissively, "Don't underestimate a farm hand,Wondercolt!! This 'fruit picker' could fly circles around your flank, and do it in style!"
Her energy was quickly rubbing off on Midnight, who was more than happy indulge in some competition. With a growing grin, he goaded her on, "Oh yeah? If you're so confident you'd trounce me, there should be no issue in proving it through say.. a race?"
Much like her friend, a grin spread across the mare's muzzle. Peach puffed out her chest and leaned in close, causing the stallion to instinctively back up slightly, "You're on, flycolt! Name a time and place and we'll settle who's really got what it takes to be a bolt!"
That time would finally come, with Midnight Lancer pacing back and forth in front of the school gates, the tired sun setting lazily above Manehattan's glittering skyline. The pegasus paced quickly, trotting in place to keep the blood pumping as ponies commuted home along the nearby boulevard, many of them ready for the weekend ahead.
Peach Harvest arrived shortly after the stallion did, her muzzle curled into a smug grin as she watched him prance about, "Jeez, you look like you're getting ready for a marathon, Lancer! Really that scared I'll beat you?~ Hehehehe!"
"Keep laughing, farmer mare! You'll be eating those words and my dust in a few minutes," shot back the stallion with a toothy smile and eyes full of fire, "You remember where we're going?"
A firm nod was given from the pink mare, "Mhm! I know we're racing to the waterfront, that pier with the bench at the end of it. That still the case?"
Midnight stopped trotting in place, turning his head towards the sky, "Yep, just something you should probably know since we're doing this so late in the day. The city doesn't allow us pegasi to fly higher than about two floors up during the evening hours because of the glare from the windows, so you'll have to follow the streets pretty closely unless you also wanna race the police."
Peach Harvest snorted a bit, her grin growing into a wicked smile as she lowered her stance and flared her wings slowly, "Sounds like you have experience in that regard, Wondercolt. Don't worry, I don't plan on making your job any easier. You ready, Midnight?"
Following her lead, Midnight trotted up next to her, flaring his wings and lowering himself down a bit, "I'm always ready, Peach! I'll fly so fast, your pretty little head will spin!"
Her heart skipped a beat and that pink muzzle flashed a shade of crimson as he teased her.
"S-sure, alright. On three then!" huffed the mare, shaking her head clear of those kinds of thoughts. Fortunately for her, Midnight was much too focused to have noticed her slip up.
"One.. two.. three!"
The second that word was muttered, Midnight flung himself forward with reckless abandon down the street, the gust of wind almost making Peach Harvest lose balance. It lasted only a moment, however, as the mare took off with her own powerful burst of energy right after that overconfident stallion.
Wings slammed against the air violently as Midnight soared above the road, drawing the eyes of several passersby who were not expecting such a sight on the way home. His eyes were locked forward and focused while his blood ran hot with adrenaline, the pegasus not leaving anything to chance today.
Just like you practiced Midnight, there's no way she can keep up with you!
For a moment, Midnight thought back at the work he had done leading up to the race. While she was stuck probably reading equations or something, he completely focused on training for the coming race. Each morning he went for a high intensity flight along the waterfront, pushing his body harder and harder as the day approached. Midnight even went through the effort of trying to sleep reasonably in order to keep his energy up.
Tearing around a corner, his frame coming only inches away from a nearby balcony, Midnight shot down a quiet alleyway. He always hated these, their darker and cramped natures unsettling him on a good day, even more so when he's blasting through at such high speed. After a moment, he flew out the other end and onto another boulevard.
Peach Harvest wasn't far behind the colt, using the low pressure wake left by the stallion to ease her work in keeping up with the admittedly powerful flier. It also helped that being a farmpony had given her plenty of time to work on her physique, something she was positive Midnight had underestimated. Just as he pulled tight into his alleyway, her face contorted back into that wicked smile from earlier.
A chuckle escaped her as she kept flying, rather than follow his turn, instead opting to follow the road further on. "I wonder when he'll figure it out, hehehehe~"
She forced her wings on harder, getting into a confident groove with each powerful flap. Those trusty saddlebags sat firmly secured to her sides, seemingly weightless as she sailed along the evening sunlight towards her goal. Her gaze was momentarily pulled from the race, however, as she noticed a flower stand along the road with a couple of ponies picking them out together.
"I'll fly so fast your pretty little head will spin!"
Shaking that pretty little head, Peach huffed and pressed on, her face getting hotter, "Stupid stallion.."
Said stallion was making great progress on his route, now over halfway towards the waterfront. There were only a few streets left before he would be met with the open beaches and docks of Manehattan's north side. Full of excitement, the pegasus began planning his victory lap.
That was until he rounded the corner to Main Street, where his excitement was utterly shattered.
Midnight slammed on the brakes, flaring his wings and coming to a stop so quickly he nearly felt his flank overtake his head, "What the buck is this!?"
The entire road was closed ahead of him, construction ponies using large cranes and tools to do maintenance work on the street and nearby skyscraper. Police pegasi floated nearby, redirecting traffic away from the street which was a veritable sea of chaos from all the taxis and commuters met with the inconvenience.
"Haystacks, no no no! Not like this!" Panicked the colt, desperately racking his brain for a way around this mess. With so many ponies filtering through the air and roads around the site, it would be a mess trying to navigate a way past them. There was no time to backtrack without giving Peach Harvest an edge, so Midnight had to think fast.
Turning his gaze towards the work being done, it appeared to be up to about the fourth floor of the skyscraper, meaning he couldn't fly over it without drawing the attention of those policeponies. There was too much work going on inside the site for him to confidently navigate through the mess as well, meaning he was effectively stuck.
Come on Lancer, think dude..
Sucking in a deep breath, Midnight made up his mind. A burst of power sent the pegasus soaring up towards the top of the construction site. Forcing himself higher and faster, the colt blasted past a pair of police pegasi, rolling over as he crested the crane and continued on.
Sure enough, shouting followed and whistles blared, signaling to Midnight that the chase was on. Passing the last of the construction below, he tucked his wings back in and dived down towards the street. The wind flowed over him like rain would an umbrella, sliding off his body as he picked up frightening speed. At the last second Midnight reared back and spread his wings fully, forcing himself up and along the packed street rather than into it.
The police were not far behind the overzealous stallion, their training and nature of work allowing them to mostly keep up with the novice daredevil. They hollered and whistled desperately, causing ponies to clear the street and additional officers to join in on the pursuit.
"Land it, bud, or we'll make you come down!" came a shout from what seemed to be one of the officers standing below him.
The larger earth pony reared back and with a mighty throw, sent a lasso careening for Midnight's vulnerable hooves. A look of horror lit up the stallions face as he rolled over, tucking his limbs in and praying. Fortunately, his reflexes saved him, the lasso instead contacting one of the officers who were hot on his tail and yanking them to a rough halt once the rope ran out.
Midnight chuckled as the pair of ponies struggled with their lasso, sticking his tongue out as he climbed higher into the air to avoid another attempt, "Nice try, officer, but you'll need to do better than that to catch me!"
His victory would be short lived, though, as the second the stallion turned back towards the west, the waterfront so tantalizingly close, Icarus would finally meet his maker. Bright sunlight, brighter than anything that should be allowed by Celestia's good graces, blasted the pegasus' poor eyes. Climbing up so high had brought Midnight out of reach of the grounded officers, but it placed him right in the path of the glare from the windows of those skyscrapers that surrounded him.
To make matters worse, Midnight still held quite a bit of speed as he climbed, causing the now disoriented pegasus to lose out on just where the heck he was going. With police officers closing in on him and no time to clear his vision, the stallion shot off towards the sunlight, doing his best to shield his eyes with a free hoof. His unstable flight brought him terrifyingly close to the massive windows of the skyscrapers, which would fiendishly blind him with specs of intense glow as he passed each pane.
Eventually, the yelling would subside as Midnight flew harder and higher, further and faster, until the only thing hitting his ears was his own panting and the sound of wind blowing over his mane.
THUNK
Suddenly, it all went black.
Author's Note
Here we go, my first proper chapter! I worked really hard on the expressions and dialogue in this one and I'm hoping I hit the mark! Please feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments! <3
