Chapters Prologue
The moon was high in the sky, beaming down on the last remaining village of the Dragonkin, Sherdaul. The Dragonkin were a powerful race with their command over darkness. Their coats were black, and their manes and tails were mostly black, but some others had colors streaked in them. They also looked like Pegasi since they had wings, but the thing that gave away what they were was their eyes. They had draconic looking eyes that normally scared ponies. Their power required the use of their eyes as well, because if they couldn’t see something, then they couldn’t focus on it or use any of their power. A blind Dragonkin was more or less a blind Pegasus with crazy looking eyes.
The Dragonkin loved the night, able to absorb the darkness to rejuvenate themselves, making food and drink unnecessary. This helped them survive during the day where there was usually no darkness.
The Dragonkin liked to stay hidden, but sometimes if somepony looked hard enough, they could probably find a Dragonkin settlement somewhere. Because of this not much was known about this race.
They used their dark power for everyday life, and rarely ever for fighting. They hated to fight, unless they had a reason to fight.
This day was like every other day. The Dragonkin tailor Shadow Seams was making clothes for the others to use. She wasn’t as experienced as a certain white Unicorn she had heard lived in Ponyville, but she was still able to make clothes, and that was all she needed.
There was also the blacksmith Black Hammer. He was not only good with metal, but wood as well, so he was able to make toys for foals and frames for glasses for the older Dragonkin.
There were no elder Dragonkin, since Dragonkin, like Alicorns, lived forever. Sometimes though, after a long life, Dragonkin go a bit crazy and fed up with how long they have lived, and the massive increase in their dark auras causes their entire body to dissipate into black mist and then fade away.
Black Hammer was currently working on a project he had been working on for a while. Even though Dragonkin hated to fight, he was always fascinated by the weapons ponies used. He was working on shaping the handle to a scythe at the moment. Shadow Seams had come over after getting a break to see him working on it.
Black Hammer and Shadow Seams had been married for a while now, and they already had a child. For some reason though, the foal wouldn’t open his eyes. He breathed like a normal pony would when they were asleep, and wouldn’t move. The couple worked together to make things for him for when he woke, but he continued to sleep. He had red streaks in his mane and tail like his father, which he was proud of.
She giggled as she saw him working, and he turned his head to look at her standing at the entrance to his smithy. He put his project down on an anvil and walked over to her, his tail swaying as he walked.
“Still working on that thing? When will you ever use it?” Shadow Seams asked her husband, a smile on her face. “We might need it for something you know. Like the other villages we could be attacked as well,” he replied.
She shook her head and nuzzled him. “Why would somepony want to attack the village where all the remaining Dragonkin are? We have a lot of power here, so I think we’ll be safe for a long time. Besides,” she turned around and flicked her tail at his face, Black Hammer falling back and into one of his buckets of water, soaking him from head to hoof. Shadow giggled again and helped her husband, pulling him from the floor, water dripping off her soaking husband. “you shouldn’t think like that around our son, it might give him negative emotions once he wakes up.”
She headed back to their house, and he charged out of his smithy, looking around for where she might have gone. Not finding her, he walked over to a stall where another Dragonkin with blue shades, blue streaks in his mane and yellow streaks in his tail was standing, advertising jewelry which he hoof crafted.
Moon Chain burst out into laughter once he saw his friend soaked. “What happened? Decide to take a bath on the job?” Black breathed out a sigh, the bad joke not really calming his mood. “No, just seems to be that my wife thinks I’m too negative.” Moon scratched his chin in thought, and then grabbed a box from behind him, shoving it into Black’s arms. “Take this, it might make her happier. Girls love jewelry from what I can tell. Just don’t try to soak HER with water once you find her. She’s probably back at your house, you know.”
Black nodded and started walking towards his house, the moon reflecting off the water still on his coat.
Once he reached his house, he opened the door and looked around the front room for his giddy wife. He heard a soothing sound coming from their bedroom and decided to investigate. Once he reached the room, he pushed open the door and saw the lovely form of his wife singing a lullaby to their sleeping son.
His expression immediately formed into a smile, and he approached his wife slowly. “You aren’t very good at sneaking around, you know that right?” He jumped, and she turned her head to look at him. He scratched the back of his neck and looked away, and she smiled again.
“Maybe you should learn from Night Leaf, she is good at sneaking up on others.” He chuckled and nodded his head quickly.
The sound of an explosion was heard outside, and they rushed to the window, seeing Moon Chain’s stall on fire as well as Moon Chain who was trying to crawl away from what had attacked him.
The scene unfolded quickly, a group of ponies spreading out through the town, setting buildings ablaze with magic and what looked like bottles with fire in them. They shouted words that could not be heard as they began wreaking havoc on the town, now setting Shadow’s shop on fire.
Shadow saw her friend Night Leaf crawling on a roof above an orange Unicorn, and then jumped, but got knocked aside by a blue Pegasus. Some of the Dragonkin tried to flee, using their wings as an advantage, but the Pegasi moved swiftly, kicking them so they fell back to the ground, where they burned like the others.
Shadow and Black ran to the entrance of their house and locked the door, hoping it would hold, but they both knew wood wouldn’t last long against fire.
A piece of their roof fell and landed on Shadow, and she cried out in fear. Black rushed over as quickly as he could, then kicked the debris off of her. “Shadow, get up, we need to get out of here,” Black shouted to her. They both looked over and saw their foal still wrapped up in a blanket woven by Shadow herself, and he was awake now, tears streaming down his face and crying out. Black dashed for his child but the roof decided to not let him, a large chunk falling on him.
Shadow’s vision was fogged by the smoke, so her vine power wouldn’t help her much here. She also wasn’t as strong as her husband, but she pushed at the piece of roof, but it wouldn’t budge. Flames ate away at the floor, and approached their child.
With their last ounce of strength and the thick smoke flooding their house, they focused on their son, spotting him through the smoke, and protecting him with dark vines. It wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the fire, but it would give him more time.
Shadow fell to the ground, but her and her husband never took their eyes off of their son, putting all their strength into protecting him.
Their door was bucked open and shattered into splinters, and Black thought it was the end for them all. The gleaming golden armor told another story, and the couple knew it was the Canterlot Royal Guard. They had heard the cries and rushed in, hoping for any survivors.
Shadow released some of her dark vines around her child to reveal him to the guards. “Please… save him… The rest of us won’t survive this, but please make sure our son does.” She coughed and her vines faded into the ground as she lost her focus, but a gray Pegasus had grabbed the foal in time and nodded to the mother, leaving her and her husband as they held hooves for the last time. Their tears evaporated in the heat, and they closed their eyes for the last time.
The guards rushed off, the village nothing but flames now. The gray Pegasus looked at the foal, who was crying out in confusion. The moon was sad that night as almost all of the creatures that lived under it were now dead, buried in the ashes of their village.
Chapter 1
The guards finally touched down back at Canterlot Castle, forcing their weary legs to carry them to the guard barracks close by. The doors made a loud noise as the guards ran straight through them. The other guards that were sleeping sat up, their expressions showing their annoyance from being woken.
The gray Pegasus took the lead with the foal in one hoof, flapping a wing to keep his balance as he galloped to the infirmary. The foal’s face was mottled and wet from tears.
Nurse Vital trotted down the rows of patient beds, wounded guards in their dreams. Her heart skipped a beat from the loud crash of the infirmary doors slamming into the walls. She peaked her head around a cabinet and saw more guards, and they had something with them.
‘I thought North Wind wasn’t going to try flirting with me anymore. What has he brought me this time?’ She trotted over to North, a smile trying to cover her annoyance of this sudden interruption. “Hello North Wind. Is there something you need?” North skidded to a halt in front of the nurse. He held out what looked like just a bunch of cloth. ‘Probably a bottle of wine again. He knows I don’t drink though, or at least I hope he does.’
Her gaze met the eyes of a foal, a foal with strange eyes. She was at a loss for words, and just stared at the creature in front of her. “Wh-what is this? Is this even a pony?” North shook his head and hoofed the small child over to her. “Make sure he is fine. He went through a lot. I’ll explain everything later.” Vital wrapped her hooves around the cloth and couldn’t help but stare. Finally she snapped out of her trance and moved to an operating table, doing what she normally did.
Hours passed, and at last the doors to the infirmary swung open and Nurse Vital stepped through them. “He… seems to be fine… But I can’t be too sure. What is he and where did you find him?” North turned his head to the others that accompanied him to Sherdaul, and then turned back to the nurse. “Sherdaul, last standing village of the Dragonkin. From what we can tell, he is the only Dragonkin that remains. All the other villages are gone too and we couldn’t save any more than him. The only reason he survived was because his parents had used the last of their strength to ensure his safety.”
Vital breathed deeply, trying to calm down. ‘I’ve dealt with injuries from splinters to broken bones, but another species entirely? Is North trying to make me have a heart attack? I don’t know how to treat a… whatever North called him.’ North put a hoof on Vital’s shoulder, realizing how stressful this must have been on her. “Calm down, it’s okay. We just need to make sure the Royal Family doesn’t find him. I suspect Princess Cadence wouldn’t mind, but the captain or the Alicorn Sisters may not feel the same way. And if word got to that idiot Blueblood we would probably have a fight on our hooves. Celestia knows that he has quite the silver tongue.” Vital put a hoof to her chin, and silently agreed.
A blue Unicorn stepped towards the two discussing ponies. “May I see him? I have experience with foals. I have 3 happy foals at the moment.” Vital nodded her head and headed to the examination table where she left the foal, and he was still there, but now he had his eyes fixated at something outside the window. The Unicorn saw nothing outside the window except the moon and the stars. ‘He must like the moon,’ she thought.
The last thing she had expected to happen was to see the foals eyes begin to glow. Nurse Vital had already left to attend to other patients, leaving the Unicorn alone. Thin black vines suddenly snaked out from the mattress, but seemed to be weak, causing them to almost immediately die. Instead they sunk back into the mattress as soon as the foal’s eyes stopped glowing. ‘What… was that? Did he just create… vines? This foal is certainly a strange one.’
A smile spread on her face as soon as the foal fell asleep. Memories of her foals playing with their toys crossed her mind, as well as memories of them sleeping. She turned around to head back to the barracks, but glanced at the foal one last time. “Sleep well,” she whispered.
The next day the Day Guard walked to their posts, replacing the Night Guard as was routine. Nurse Vital burst through the doors of the infirmary, searching the barracks. “What’s wrong Nurse Vital? Lose something,” asked a white Earth Pony stallion. She nodded frantically, checking under all the beds and even behind the curtains. “So… what did you lose?”
Two purple draconic-like eyes watched from a shadowed corner of the room, watching everything. Nopony seemed to notice, or they weren’t paying attention. Nurse Vital accidently bumped into the owner of the two eyes, the Dragonkin foal who had snuck out of the infirmary while the nurse had slept.
She quickly put her hooves around him and picked him up off the ground. He tried to struggle but couldn’t get out of her grasp. She stormed back to the infirmary, all the guards having wide eyes at what had just happened. “Sooooo, does anypony know what that was all about,” asked the white Earth Pony. All the other guards looked at each other, a few of them scratching the back of their necks.
Nurse Vital set the foal back on the bed she had put him in yesterday. ‘How did he even get out of here? He shouldn’t know how to walk yet, unless these Dragonkin can learn a lot faster than ponies. That would be kind of scary actually.’ The nurse let out a soft giggle. ‘It might even be like the captain’s sister.’
North Wind and the other Day Guards trudged back into the barracks. Some of them nearly fell asleep while walking. Some of the Night Guards chuckled as they passed them. “Didn’t sleep enough last night? I heard you went to go see Nurse Vital. Did she finally accept you or something,” joked the white Earth Pony. “Shut up Steel Ring. We didn’t get much sleep last night,” North replied angrily. Steel trotted out of the barracks, the other Night Guards following behind him.
North walked to the doors of the infirmary and entered. “Nurse Vital, are you in here?” The nurse poked her head out of her office. “When am I not here? As much as you visit me you should know I’m always in here. Did you come to see the foal? He’s staring at the moon again as usual. It hasn’t even come up fully but still he can’t seem to look away from it.” Both of the ponies walked side by side to the Dragonkin foal’s bed, where he was doing exactly what the nurse said he was doing. He had his eyes fixated on the moon.
The Unicorn from yesterday had made her presence known by tapping North on the back, which caused him to jump and then face plant into the mattress of the foal’s bed. He quickly raised his head, his eyes focusing on the Dragonkin. ‘He didn’t even flinch… Do all Dragonkin love the moon this much?’
North stood up and turned to glare at the Unicorn. “Water Wishes, you better not sneak up on me next time.” Water lowered her head. “I didn’t mean to. I thought you would’ve heard me walking down the hallway.” North sighed, closing his eyes. “We’ve all had a long day. You should just get some rest. The foal is doing fine.” Water’s expression quickly changed to a smile at hearing about the foal. “Yes sir,” was the last words she spoke before leaving the infirmary and heading to bed.
Nurse Vital looked at North, who had bags under his eyes and his eyes slightly closed. “You should get some rest too, it’s bad for your health to be staying up late,” she told him. He glanced at her before nodding and heading off to bed as well.
Chapter 2
The small black foal paced up and down the rows of beds in the Royal Guard barracks. The meeting for all the guards was taking too long, and an idea suddenly came to him. His eyes began to glow, black vines slowly rising from the floor.
North Wind, Steel Ring, and the other guards pushed open the door to their barracks, discussing the recent news. When North turned to look inside, the beds suspended by thin black vines definitely caught his attention. A laugh came from the center of the room, and sitting in the center of the room was none other than the black foal they left with the Nurse.
“Hey! What are you doing! That’s dangerous,” North shouted. The black foal turned around, the glow from his eyes fading away and the beds in the air hit the floor with a loud crash.
Princess Celestia strode down the hallway beside the guard barracks. She turned her head towards the sound of a loud crash from behind the doors. The doors swung open with a flash of her horn, and she glanced inside.
The beds were strewn about, sheets and pillows covering the floors, and some mattresses dangling from helmet hangers. Cheerful laughter came from the guards scattered around the barracks. Celestia eyed North Wind and Steel Ring. “What is going on here? Why does it look like a tornado flew through here?” Both stallions’ heads whipped around to face their ruler. “Well, you see your highness, we were having a bit of a celebration from the recent news, and we got kind of carried away, as you can see,” North said.
Celestia gave a sweet smile and took another look at the mess. “Well next time try to keep it down, that was rather loud.” North knelt down in acknowledgement, and then rose back to his hooves, flapping his wings and taking flight, heading towards one of the hanging mattresses.
“Alright all of you, get to work cleaning this up,” Celestia commanded. The guards dashed about, getting to work on the mess. Celestia glanced at the dark area under one of the beds, taking notice of a quick purple flash. ‘What was that? They better not have brought wine in here. Oh well, I’ll let them have their fun for now.’ She turned around and headed out the door and down the hallway.
North breathed out a sigh of relief, raising a hoof to his chest, and releasing the mattress in hooves. It slammed into the floor but made no noise.
The foal crawled out from under the bed and turned to look at the other guards, who were staring back at him. North floated down beside the foal and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, look, just because you’re older doesn’t mean you can go messing up our room. Why don’t you go see if Chef Gourmet needs your help, but remember, don’t get caught, ok?” The foal nodded his head and trotted towards the door with his head lowered. North let out another sigh before turning to the other guards. “Alright, let’s get this place cleaned up.”
The foal darted from shadow to shadow, making his way towards the kitchen. Princess Celestia strode past him, but didn’t notice him.
Finally the young Dragonkin snuck through the doors of the kitchen, trotting over to the pony who was currently spreading spices over a fine dish. The foal crept over to the chef, staring at the stallion’s hooves working their magic.
Chef Gourmet turned his gaze away from his work, bringing his attention towards the small black foal who had just poked him. A smile spread across his face as he turned to the foal. “Hello there, did you come here to help me?” The foal nodded and the chef turned to his kitchen, putting a hoof to his chin. “Well, I don’t know what you can really help me with.” The chef turned back around and a dozen black vines were grasping some of his spices up to the foal’s face, the foal seeming to examine them, his eyes giving off a faint light. “No! Put those down! They are not to play with!” The foal laid down and put his hooves over his face, the vines retreating back into the ground and the spices dropping.
The chef swiftly snatched the spices out of the air and set them down on the table. His eyes shifted to the side, looking at the foal cowering on the floor. He knelt down in front of the foal and brushed a hoof through his mane. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell like that. I’m very busy at the moment so maybe you can see if one of the maids needs your help. I heard Feather Duster was having some trouble down the hallway in that spare room. You might even find something fun to play with in there, so why don’t you go lend her a hoof?” The foal nodded and bolted out the door, his hooves clopping on the tiled floor as he ran.
He stopped at the door of the room Chef Gourmet was talking about. He put his hooves against the old wood and pushed, the door slowly swinging open.
Standing on her hind legs on a table sweeping the top of a bookshelf was Feather Duster. After she finished, she got back on all fours, but her fore legs slipped off the table and sent her in a tumbling heap against the bookshelf, which began to teeter.
Feather Duster put her hooves in front of her face, awaiting the crushing pain that was to come. She peeked from between her hooves to see the bookshelf suspended in the air by a few black vines.
The vines lowered the book shelf down to the floor, where it proceeded to tip over, colliding with a suit of armor, the helmet soaring through the air and landing cleanly on the foal’s head.
Feather Duster rose to her hooves and brushed her hooves against her now dusty clothes. She glanced at the small black foal and let out a small giggle. She strode over and knelt down in front of him. “My knight in shining armor. What are you doing in here anyways?”
The foal looked at her, their eyes meeting. The foal kept quiet, but pointed a hoof to the dusty desk in the corner. “So you came to help me? Thanks but I think I can handle this. I may be a bit clumsy but that doesn’t mean I can’t work.” Her horn lit up and a feather duster levitated beside her. She headed towards the desk, her hooves slipping from under her after stepping on a knocked-over spear. She quickly rose to her hooves and proceeded to clean the desk.
The foal glanced around at the room, noticing the glint of metal in the far corner of the room across from Feather Duster reflecting from the dim light swaying on the ceiling. He jotted the location down in his memory and left the room, quietly pulling the door closed.
He snuck back to the guard barracks and pushed the door open, trotting to the infirmary and to Nurse Vital’s office, leaping up into the bed she had in there for him and drifting off to sleep.
