The Aurora Project

Our story begins with a mysterious beginning, for it begins deep in the Everfree Forest far under the ground. The room where it all begins is dark and cold. Four beds line the walls of the large room, each of which have something in them. This is where we meet our heroes.

Night stirs in her bunk, her eyes slowly slide open. She looks to her side, Day and Dusk are still fast asleep, though Dawn is sitting on the side of his bunk. Dawn, not accustomed to the darkness, just sits there, waiting for the lights to come on just like every other day. Night sits up, looking around drowsily. The room was quiet, though a little commotion comes from out in the hall. Day sits up and yawns, her orange and yellow mane crazy. Dusk, the only one not awake, snores and rolls out of his bed, hitting the floor with a thud. Which startles Night to the point of her squeaking quietly. Dusk fumbles around in the dark, wondering why he was out of his bed.

"Dusk... You alright?" Day asks sleepily. Dusk replied with an affirmative grunt as he lays back in bed. Once he does so the room becomes flooded with bright, fluorescent light. They all blink a few times and get up and head to the bathroom. Once Day sees herself in the mirror she squeals with terror and immediately begins to brush her hair and style it. Night brushes her teeth and rinses and heads to the shower. In the boy's bathroom, Dusk sits in an aromatherapy bath as per the doctor's orders. Dawn looks at himself in the mirror and giggles at the crazy hairstyles he can make with his long blonde hair. Night is the first out and she walks to the gym as she always does on a monday. She signed in at the terminal next to the gym's door and the door opens with a beep. She strolls in and smiles at the attendant, Buck. He is really nice to her.

"The usual, Night?" Buck asked, smiling. Night smiled back with a blush.

"No, I feel like hitting the range today. May I have the shotgun course?" Night says happily. Buck nodded and he guided her to a door with a shotgun shell on it and a warning sign that read 'Warning, Eye and Ear protection required beyond here' and had an arrow pointing to a rack on the wall that had ear muffs and ballistic glasses. Though some were missing, and there is hardly ever any missing. Night reluctantly grabbed her normal set and once inside the door she grabs her favorite type of shotgun, the semi-auto short barrel. She smiles and gallops to the starting gate, once there she sees another pony in the place next to her. He looks over to her and laughs

"A mare?! Hah! This'll be fun!" He cackled. Night frowned and thought to herself that she was gonna show this jerk up... The starting bell beeped and Night burst from the gate, firing at the first target and hitting her mark, she shifted to the right, taking out two more and she looks up and shoots the extra points marker that only a few ponies know about. Buck had told her about it one day. The stallion is struggling to keep up, taking looks over to Night, amazed by the fluid movement of her as she takes the targets down. Night is like a machine, aim, shoot, repeat. She finishes and looks back at the stallion, he struggles with the more cumbersome pump action twelve gauge. Once he finishes, he walks over to her and smiles.

"You're amazing..." He grins at her and she blushes, not used to get complements, let alone from cute stallions. "Who are you?" Night blinked, she had just realized she had never met this pony. He was completely new to her, and that's unusual. She knew everypony who lived here. But he was an anomaly.

"M-My name's Nightlight... A-And you?" Night replied shakily. He smiled at her.

"I'm Delta! Nice to meet you, miss!" He seemed younger than her, though he was mature.

"H-How old are you...?"

"Well... I turn 19 in a month or two..." He's older than her, yet he seemed so young. She stared at him, feeling an odd attraction to him. He just smiles warmly and does the same.

"W-Well... w-where did you come from?" I asked, wondering why she had never seen him before.

"I was born here... Why?"

"Oh... J-Just wondering..." They just stand there in an awkward silence for what seemed like minutes, then Delta breaks the silence.

"Do you normally come around here?"

"No. I normally go through the flying track today..."

"What's your fastest time?" He says, spreading his wings and smiling.

"2-2:53..." As she says this, his wings droop and his jaw drops in amazement.

"You're that Nightlight?! The one with the track record?!"

"Y-Yeah, I guess..." She blushes and smiles. What happens next surprises Night. He hugs her, his fur warm and greeting. She awkwardly wraps her hooves around him. She blushes deeply, she had never been hugged. Ever. Period. But she never wanted this to stop, it felt so nice and warm. Delta finally broke the hug with a blush.

"Well... I gotta go... Bye, Night!" He gallops off, a little skip in his step. She notices that an immense amount of time went by, seeing that it was 8 PM. Night trotted out of the range and went back to the room, she was met by a shrieking little brother of hers.

"AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!" Dawn yelled as he ran around the room, his mane on fire. Day sits in the corner, cackling at her handiwork.

"Day... Seriously...? Th'hell is wrong with you?" Night looks at her, who just now noticed her sister.

"Uh... oops..." She looked guilty.

"Fix him..." Day nodded and got up, grabbing Dawn and extinguishing the flame. Day apologizes and walks to her bed and lays there. Dawn shuffles to his bed and lays there, shivering and mumbling something. Dusk was already in his bed, hiding under his covers shaking. Night walks over to Dusk and hugs her little brother, who looks up at her and whimpers.

"It'll be ok, hun... Just sleep and have sweet dreams..." She gets up and lays in her own bed and slowly drifts off to sleep.